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The Gifts of Athena: Historical Origins of the Knowledge Economy. By Joel Mokyr. Princeton, N.J., and Oxford: Princeton University Press, 2002. xiii, 359 pp. $35.00. ISBN 0-691-09483-7.
In seven essays woven together by a theory of knowledge and its role in material life, Joel Mokyr explains how increases in understanding of the workings of the physical world enabled the emergence of the "knowledge economy." The premise of the book is that "what people knew affected what they did" (36). Mokyr posits that knowledge developed by science during the Enlightenment and the social institutions that supported the growth and diffusion of knowledge are the foundations for modern technology, material culture, and material prosperity. He bases his historical explanation on a model of knowledge comprised of categorical distinctions.
Mokyr is concerned with "useful knowledge," that is, knowledge that deals with "natural phenomena that potentially lend themselves to manipulation, such as artifacts, materials, energy, and living beings" (3). Useful knowledge is of two types: propositional knowledge and prescriptive knowledge. Propositional knowledge is knowledge about natural phenomena and regularities that can be applied to create knowledge of how to do things, or techniques. Prescriptive knowledge comprises techniques, designs, and instructions; prescriptive knowledge may be embodied in an artifact-Mokyr uses a piano as an example of a device whose use is obvious in its design. Knowledge not only underlies design, but it is also manifest...