The essay title suggests that shared knowledge can influence and affect personal knowledge. Within this framework of this discussion, I would like to define shared knowledge as facts and values that are taught and can be instilled in one’s mind subconsciously. As for personal knowledge, it is knowledge that “I know” including direct sensory or emotional experience or new discoveries based on one’s experience. The essay question implied that shared knowledge can shape personal knowledge, and also suggests that personal knowledge can shape shared knowledge. This essay will explore the bidirectional relationship and limitations of shared knowledge and personal knowledge on Ethics and Human Sciences. One aspect of how shared knowledge can shape …show more content…
In the early 20th century, a group of suffragettes fought for the dissenting view in which women should have the right to vote. The suffrage movement had raised awareness on the issue of women’s votes which eventually leads to the approval from the government. This suggests that personal knowledge of which women should have the right to vote had influenced the majority and the government, shaping shared knowledge. This is supported by Moscovici (1976) where minorities provide new ideas and information which leads to re-examination of existing views. Moscovici’s Blue-Green study investigated on whether two confederates among a group of six can affect the responses of other subjects. The six subjects were shown slides of different shades of blue and had to answer either green or blue for each slide. The two confederates were told to answer green for every slide, but in the second part of the study, they were less consistent. It is found that 32% of subjects had agreed at least once and the effect of minority on majority is 8.4% when confederates were consistent. This suggests that minorities have the ability to shape a majority, implying personal knowledge can shape shared knowledge as the two confederates can influence the responses of four subjects. This unfolds the bidirectional relationship between shared knowledge and personal
Ethical judgements limit the methods available in the production of knowledge in both the arts and the natural sciences. Discuss.
Knowledge is basically the theoretical or practical understanding of a subject. It consists of facts and skills acquired by a person through experience or education. Ethical considerations are relative to one’s own knowledge, experience, and value system. According to Hunt and Vitell (1986), ethical judgment is the process of considering several alternatives and choosing the most ethical alternative. For Rest (1986), ethical judgment is the process by which an individual determines that one alternative is morally right and another alternative is morally wrong. “Broadly, ethical judgement can be defined so as to include the decision process as well as the action itself.” This essay aims to discuss the way in which ethical judgements limit the methods available in the production of knowledge in both the arts and natural sciences.
Much of the research on false consensus has demonstrated that people tend to over project how many members of their in-group are likely to share their attitudes and behaviors. This effect diminishes when comparing to an out-group. It is thought that this occurs because people feel that people who they do not consider to share a group identity with will likely have different basic attitudes and behaviors than they.
Ethical judgements often add complex implications to the pursuit of knowledge, regardless of the area of knowledge. In the areas of the arts and natural sciences, ethics can pertain in diverging ways. For the arts, ethics often comes into question when determining whether or not it is worthwhile to sacrifice ethics for artistic choices and messages. For the natural sciences, in contrast, ethics is often debated in the pursuit of new knowledge. There are many different criteria to when it comes to the ethical justification of knowledge, all based on different perspectives; whether these judgements have a direct impact in knowledge production or come into play in hindsight depends largely upon how ethics is perceived.
But what is this “knowledge”? The dictionary defines knowledge as “facts, information, and skills acquired through experience or education; the theoretical or practical understanding of a subject.”1 However, the whole idea of knowledge differs from person to person. In todays world, knowledge is of many types and is very complex and variable. The two main types of knowledge are Personal Knowledge and Shared Knowledge. Personal knowledge refers to the knowledge one acquires by acquaintance and first hand experience. It is gained through practice, personal involvement and observation and is influenced by one’s circumstances, values and interests. One’s perspective is both influenced and contributes to one’s personal knowledge. On the other hand, Shared knowledge refers to the knowledge possessed by more than one person. It is clearly structured as it is a product of many people and has been agreed upon by many people. It is also influenced by the diverse cultures present within the communities and reflects the attitude of the society towards the different areas of knowledge.
Other influential experiments in social influence include majority and minority influence. In majority influence, individuals compare personal responses with the sources, without considering their own judgement; this then leads them to comply with the viewpoint of the majority of those around them. This can also be known as group pressure and is similar to Herd behaviour (Doms and Avermaet, 1979; Latané & Wolf, 1981). However, in minority influence the individual attempts to validify an opposing response, meaning that as they do so, they consider their judgement and unlike in majority influence they instinctively convert to the viewpoint of the minority (Doms and Avermaet, 1979; Moscovici, 1980). Martin et al. (2006) later examined the effects of majority and minority influence and concluded that, when attitudes are changed by minority influences they are more likely to have a consistent behavioural intention, compared to if the attitudes were changed by majority influence. Suggesting minority influence produces behaviour that is easier to predict than majority influence.
Often it is assumed that our source of personal knowledge stems from the core of shared knowledge, however this is a common misconception as it is only valid to a certain scope. The Ancient Japanese proverb, ' 'none of us is as strong as all of us ' ', agrees with the assumption as it can be deduced the intent of this proverb is to indicate that shared knowledge overpowers personal knowledge, and to an extent tells us personal knowledge overall leads to the formation of shared knowledge. However, the validity of this conjecture is not entirely predisposed, through the Areas of Knowledge of Mathematics and Art a bidirectional argument is formed. Shared knowledge is highly structured, is systematic in its nature and the product of more than one individual. While individuals contribute to it, shared knowledge does not depend only upon the contributions of a particular individual—there are
“Knowledge is power”. “Great power involves great responsibility”. Both of these quotes, the first belonging to Francis Bacon and the second to Franklin D. Roosevelt, demonstrate the undeniable relationship between knowledge and responsibility. So if the possession of knowledge gives one great power, then certainly ethical responsibility comes hand in hand with it. But what does ethical responsibility involve? Does all personal knowledge need to be shared in order to broaden shared knowledge? Or is there a limit to the ethical responsibility on the possession of knowledge, and if so where do you draw the line? In this essay I will venture into a few AOK’s and see which holds more ethical responsibility in the possession of its knowledge and why.
The relationship of outside knowledge and self-knowledge can be simply described as a love/hate relationship. While outside knowledge may hold many accounts of seen or heard experiences and bring those together to form a thought, self-knowledge can only contain one person’s account but have much more relatability and basis. When a movement is occurring the strength and movement of the self-knowledge is much more suitable because it causes people to feel connected to that person and therefore the movement. An example of this is The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano by Olaudah Equiano. However, outside knowledge allows for a more broad sense of knowledge that may have been obtained through many experiences and studies. “The
Ethical judgments limit the methods available in the production of knowledge in both the arts and the natural sciences. Discuss.
When we usually think of ethics, we consider the rules between right and wrong. Although most people acquire a sense of what is right and wrong during their childhood; moral development and reasoning occurs throughout a human’s life as they pass through the different stages of life. Most people are so aware of ethical norms that to a certain extent it has been considered common sense. On the contrary, if morality was nothing more than common sense, then why are there so many ethical disputes and issues in today’s society? This topic raises various knowledge issues in the fields of arts and natural sciences such as “To what extent do ethical considerations constrain the production of knowledge in natural sciences?” and “How far do ethics play a role in the pursuit of knowledge in the field of arts?” This essay will explore these two questions in detail along with the role of the three ways of knowing (emotion, perception and reasoning).
If you look in the dictionary, you’ll find the definition of educated to be something close to this: having undergone education; characterized by or displaying qualities of culture and learning; based on some information or experience. But I haven’t found this to be particularly specific, or really helpful at all. As I’ve come to understand, being educated is transient, unless you learn to be, as a truly educated person is, a life-long learner. True education comes from yourself, from gaining an understanding of yourself, and from honing skills such as creativity, critical thinking, and problem-solving. These skills are what make a truly educated person, because they can use and further these skills throughout any aspect of their lives.
Production of knowledge is generally seen in a positive light. However, when ethics and morality become involved in the process of production, judgements will undoubtedly be made that may seem to limit the availability of that knowledge. Ethical judgements are made by the combination of a knower, his or her standard of value, and the situation itself. In the field of the arts and natural sciences, ethics plays a crucial role in the extent one may possibly be allowed to go when discovering new knowledge. Reason and emotion are important ways of knowing that help guide knowers in making certain moral decisions.
This essay will show that ethical considerations do limit the production of knowledge in both art and natural sciences and that such kind of limitations are present to a higher extent in the natural sciences.
...otence in the Ethics Areas of Knowledge as personal emotion is centerfold to the seeker.