The Importance Of Personal Knowledge

When individuals define themselves, they compare themselves with others. In a same way, individuals use their personal knowledge of themselves as standard to think about others. However, the situation become more complex when it comes to first impression, personalities, knowledge of others’ background, personal experiences and subjective opinions. Sometimes, individuals tend to relate others to someone they know and presume without reasons that they have same characteristics and will behave similarly. Moreover, sometimes individuals force their own perspectives on others, leading to misunderstanding. There are many problems when individuals try to know others deeply or try to stand on others’ position to consider issues. Charles Siebert, in

Pet owners can understand their cats’ holding tail straight up as being happy only when they know the meaning of the certain behavior. In addition, when a baby cries, it may by caused by starving or causing attentions rather than sadness. Individuals may have not similar emotions or memories that can help them understand others’ actions. In the other hand, individuals study new things with the help of their own knowledge. For instance, scientists study other religions’ culture or history by comparing their own culture and history. When archeologists discover a pre-historical utensil, they think about the similar shape or material of tools that are used in some culture they have already known. In view of these knowledge, they make conjectures. Siebert describes a unique mourning activity and burial rituals among elephant herds that is “conducting weeklong vigils over the body, carefully covering it with earth and brush, revisiting the bones for years afterward, caressing the bones with their trunks, often taking turns rubbing their trunks along the teeth of a skull’s lower jaw, the way living elephants do in greeting” (355). Burial, revisiting graves and greeting also exist in the culture of human beings that are used to show individuals’ respect and yearning to the ancestors. When scientists see the similar behaviors of elephant herds, it is clear that elephants are a species that put emphasis on the bonds of their community and social interactions. Scientists can point out the purpose of the behavior by comparing it to human beings’ culture. However, sometime, when individuals attempt to know others, they are fixed in their own knowledge. Thus, their limited knowledge becomes an obstacle that prevents them to get a further understanding. That is, “while