Sources of Knowledge

One of the most common sources of knowledge is through books. Books are usually very trustworthy as experts write them and have knowledge on that specific subject matter. They are authorities on the subject. Although, we should not always rely on what the experts say as it may not always be true. For example, in science, new discoveries are being made everyday thus the “knowledge” we thought to have had on the subject is wrong and is therefore not knowledge. For Campbell Biology one might want to trust the newer editions, as the knowledge will be more valuable than an older edition.

Other common source is the Internet. We all use it but it is not as trustworthy as a book. Wikipedia, allows anyone to write and edit the pages. Therefore how can we know that this new knowledge is true? As well, many sites created today are not generally written by experts and could therefore be false. There is no control over what is written. As well, people judge the reliability of a site based on its appearance. How do we know that the most trustworthy sites are the ones that look good? We don’t. Therefore the Internet is not a very trustworthy source of knowledge.

The media can be a trustworthy source and could also be one of the least trustworthy sources. This all depends on the types of media. If the media consists of celebrity gossip then how do we know its true? Usually, the goal of this type of media is to attract the attention of the viewers. If we are talking about news media, this source of knowledge is generally trustworthy. But, we should be aware that there usually is some bias in the stories presented to us.

Personal experience differs from these other sources of knowledge, as it is not second-hand knowledge but the original source of knowledge. Even though this knowledge is gained through own personal experience it is not trustworthy by itself. Combined with knowledge obtained by others this knowledge becomes the most trustworthy of all the sources.