Knowledge is often understood to mean that knowledge describes the truth behind a phenomenon on the basis of justified cognition. What constitutes solid, justified cognition is an important question in philosophical epistemology.487
In realistic conceptions, knowledge and solid cognition are independent of subjective belief, feelings, or myths, even if these have great personal significance. Knowledge as solid cognition is to describe reality accurately.488
In woke activism, knowledge means something else, as it has been influenced by postmodern conceptions. The postmodern concept of knowledge is rooted in the ideas of the philosopher Michel Foucault on power: knowledge is regarded as an instrument of the powerful that serves their interests (so-called power-knowledge).489 Societally recognised knowledge is considered dependent on cultural values, experiences, and social positions. Knowledge is therefore politically conditioned.490 The system is said to be constructed in such a way that it maintains itself through certain dominant narratives.
Shaped by Foucault’s view, woke activists problematise societal stocks of knowledge: allegedly, knowledge always contains the consciousness of the group that developed it (see Truth). From an intersectional perspective, this results in multiple forms of knowledge: what is regarded in a realistic view as objective truth is merely a “white, Eurocentric, male form of knowledge”. Objective truth is considered a dominant, privilege-securing form of knowledge and is therefore problematised (see Standpoint Theory).491 Woke theorists devote themselves intensively to the allegedly oppressed forms of knowledge. To protect and appreciate marginalised forms of knowledge, science is to be decolonised.492
In doing so, woke activists ignore a decisive characteristic that marks real knowledge: real knowledge works in reality, not only in theory.
Knowledge from critical theories often does not work in reality; however, it is usually useful for activist purposes. What woke activists often ignore, however: the rejection of unusable forms of knowledge does not constitute unjust marginalisation but is elementary for a functioning society.