Personally, I believe knowledge is subjective. What knowledge I have acquired will most likely be different than what someone else has acquired. I also believe culture and experience play important roles in how someone acquires knowledge and in what knowledge they acquire. I also believe that there is a consensus among most people today in terms of general knowledge. For instance, I think everyone on earth practically knows the sun will rise tomorrow. However, based on one's academic experience, one person may know what the composition of the sun is comprised of, versus someone who has no scientific education will not.
I believe we should think about knowledge as the sum total of one's experience, which can also be influenced by cultural and social influences that that person has been subjected to. Knowledge is also not concrete - it can be challenged and manipulated, based on experience. So, experience plays a vital role in what knowledge we acquire and how we acquire it.
1 comment:
You bring up the important issue of authoritative sources here, which we trust in relation to our everyday sense of things. Although recall that epistemology asks how we justify knowledge, not where we get it from.
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