1. Personal and shared knowledge
Michael Lacewing

2. Areas of knowledge (AOK)
Natural sciences
Human sciences
Mathematics
History
Arts
Ethics
Religious knowledge systems
Indigenous knowledge systems
Areas of knowledge (AOK)

3. Ways of knowing (WOK) Language Sense perception Reason Emotion
Intuition
Memory
Imagination
Faith
Ways of knowing (WOK)

4. Knowledge as a map Different kinds of map Different purposes of maps
Terrain
Political
Mapping in mathematics
Different purposes of maps
Equality measures
Navigation
Showing relations – geneaological trees
Different sorts of things ‘mapped’
Physical – small, medium, large
Species
Theories
BUT: there are better/worse maps
Mistakes can be made
More or less accurate
Fallibilism not relativism?
Knowledge as a map

5. Shared knowledge emerges from interaction relies on shared methods
discussed, debated, developed
can form part of group identity
Shared knowledge

6. Personal knowledge Individual, unshared: various reasons, explanations
‘Know how’ gained by individual practice
Only accessible to individual, e.g. own feelings
Tacit, unconscious
Requires first personal experience
Critical note: ‘personal’ knowledge is not a single type of knowledge
Personal knowledge

7. 6 conditions on sharing knowledge
Motivation to share: either shared problems with same solution or other incentive
e.g. technological problem, from agriculture to computer security to ethics
absence of competitive reward structure
Knowledge exists in a form that can be transported over distance and time
usually requires language – shared symbols
so tacit and purely experiential knowledge fails
Technologies for transporting knowledge exist
e.g. speaking, then writing, printing press, internet
6 conditions on sharing knowledge

8. 6 conditions on sharing knowledge
Shared concepts and conventions
e.g. common measurement, scientific concepts
An extreme case?
Shared methodology
e.g. reading, reasoning (use of evidence), maths
Shared history giving meaningfulness to question
responses to and building upon past knowledge; e.g. changes in economics
6 conditions on sharing knowledge

9. The knowledge framework (Ch. 3)
Of any area of shared knowledge, we can ask:
What is its scope and applications?
What concepts does it use? What role does language play?
What methods does it use?
How is it developed over time?
We can also ask: how does shared knowledge relate to personal knowledge?
(We will return to the knowledge framework when we start looking at AOKs.)
The knowledge framework (Ch. 3)

10. One approach: it fails to meet one or more of the conditions on sharing knowledge
Critical note: Can be accidentally or necessarily personal
Could in principle be shared by usual means (accidentally personal) or could not be shared by usual means (necessarily personal)
Different kinds of personal ‘maps, e.g. tacit, experiential, detailed procedural map (music, sport)
Herbie Hancock:
So – now you know what Herbie Hancock did, could you do it?
Personal knowledge

11. Failing (one of) the six criteria for sharing knowledge
No shared problems/interest or no incentive for sharing (e.g. rewarded skill)
Doesn’t exist in a transportable form
E.g. can’t be put into language
Personal practice needed
No technologies for transporting knowledge
Accidental or necessary? The Matrix, 46m-48m
Failing (one of) the six criteria for sharing knowledge

12. Failing (one of) the six criteria for sharing knowledge
No shared concepts or conventions
Cultural distance
Specialism: tea tasting
No shared methods
Ramanuja and mathematical dreams
Religious experience?
No shared history
Arts? Failure to appreciate history makes personal knowledge hard to share
Failing (one of) the six criteria for sharing knowledge

13. Features of personal knowledge
Not conditions (requirements), only typical features
Beliefs, memories, emotions, imagination of individual are important
Rests directly on individual ways of knowing, rather than shared methods
Experiential – what it ‘feels’ like; subjectivity
Part of a personal perspective on the world
May involve reflection on oneself or one’s experience
May be procedural
Practice may be important
May be difficult to teach or communicate
Features of personal knowledge

14. Interaction between personal and shared knowledge
The knowledge of an individual (e.g. first discovery) can be shared through language or example.
Shared knowledge made be applied to individual situation to understand personal experience.
Interaction between personal and shared knowledge

15. In between shared and personal knowledge
Is it really possible to have knowledge of a culture in which we have not been raised?
Are those outside a particular religious tradition really capable of understanding its key ideas?
Does there exist a neutral position from which to make judgments about competing claims from different groups with different traditions, different interests or different positions in society (e.g. gender, race)?
Is some evidence or reasoning only available from particular perspectives (‘standpoint epistemology’)?
Thinking about shared knowledge allows us to think about the nature of the group that does the sharing.
To what extent are our familiar areas of knowledge embedded in a particular tradition or to what extent might they be bound to a particular culture?
In between shared and personal knowledge

16. Different kinds of knowledge (Word document)
Exercise