Trustworthy Sources of Knowledge
There are a lot of different sources that provide a person with
knowledge. These are books, web sites, the media, personal experience,
authorities, reasoning, emotions, perception, language etc.
Nevertheless people don’t always trust the information they get from
all of these sources, and thus most of the time they end up trusting
only one of them.
In order to answer the question of which one of the sources of
knowledge I consider most trustworthy, we first have to define the
word trustworthy. For me, it means reliable. Therefore in order to
answer what I find trustworthy, we first have to answer, which one is
more reliable, which source provides the least biased information. The
other factor that we also have to consider while writing this essay is
the different areas of knowledge. These are science, mathematics,
history, social sciences, literature, ethics and aesthetics (art,
music etc.).
I personally believe that each area of knowledge needs a different
source of knowledge. By this I mean that one source, let’s say the
media for example, is not able to provide a person with enough
information for all the areas of knowledge. In order to answer the
given question I will consider each area of knowledge and then decide
what source of information is best for that particular subject.
First of all mathematics. I think that the most trustworthy source of
knowledge for this subject is books, schoolbooks to be more precise.
They provide us with everything we need to know about math, as well as
giving us the reasons and explanations to why it works that way. For
example we wouldn’t be able to learn a lot about this topic if we only
relied on our emotions. Because some of our perceptions might be
wrong, and we can establish wrong interpretations about the topic.
Schoolbooks on the other hand, are written especially to inform people
and teach them mathematics. They are produced by acknowledged people
who understand the topic, and thus will not contain wrong information.
As I said before, math and science are important, but the humanities are just as important, if not more. “The humanities, done right, are the crucible within which our evolving notions of what it means to be fully human are put to the test; they teach us, incrementally, endlessly, not what to do but how to be” (Slouka). This quote taken from “Dehumanized” defines and truly puts Slouka’s beliefs into the perspective of what the humanities should teach students and how they should be taught, which I agree with fully. I believe that without the humanities, we, as humans, would all be the same and there would be no room to be different from one another. Whether it be by our culture, religion, or interests, not two people are alike. Individuals should not be bred into being something that they do not want to be or even like Slouka argues, students should not be a “capital investment” for the future of the economy. Students should be investing in themselves to express who they truly are, rather than being something that the economy expects them to
because it could be the same as creating an imaginary world that you still need to understand.
As Wikipedia has become more and more popular with students, some professors have become increasingly concerned about the online, reader-produced encyclopedia. While plenty of professors have complained about the lack of accuracy or completeness of entries, and some have discouraged or tried to bar students from using it.
the truth behind them. An example of this is the way in which we learn
Throughout Frankenstein it is evident that Victor and Robert express their thirst for knowledge, which often leads to destruction. Through analyzing Frankenstein it is possible to find many examples that illustrate the fact that wanting to have more knowledge can be extremely dangerous. Firstly, as Victor is creating life he is able to create a humanoid monster, unfortunately he is appalled by his creation and becomes very ill. Afterwards, when Victor is completing the female companion for his original creation, Victor realizes that this will only create more destruction. Finally, as Walton is on a journey to the North Pole he encounters difficulties that nearly kill him and his crew. This shows that Victor and Walton are repeatedly searching for more knowledge even though it is dangerous.
Textbooks are essential and informative, however it is not the main core value of education. If we truly depend on textbook, our world would be as naïve as natives in colonization era. Schopenhauer provides the difference between reading and thinking. “Reading forcibly imposes on the mind thoughts that are as foreign to its mood and direction” (Schopenhauer, pg. 89) Reading is an escape of reality. It penetrates the mind and alters thinking. “The mind is totally subjected to an external compulsion” (Schopenhauer, pg.89) although reading is prominent, it can impair personal thinking. “That the surest way of never having any thoughts of your own is to pickup a book every time you have a free moment.” (Schopenhauer, pg. 90) When it comes to reading college content, it has no originality. We are attaining our foreign thinking from a text that has been modified thus teach one purpose only and that is to provide facts. We cannot attain wisdom from textbooks. Universities provide textbooks that are a copy of another copy; that is to say, the information is the production of somebodies else’s idea following by, another mans ideas and so on. “All that has ever been taught is a critique of a words and fifty critiques of them as preserved side-by-side and intermingled” (Nietzsche, pg. 187) What can we obtain from a mixtures of words? Well criteria met. It is possible to have our own thoughts and ideas; if we only foreshadow on textbook we will become a textbook itself. “People who pass their lives in reading and acquire their wisdom from books are like those who learn about a country from travel description” (Schopenhauer, pg. 91) we have to obtain our wisdom from our own thoughts and not from what is editing in from of
In today’s society information is everywhere. We have libraries, but we also have online resources. Information can be obtained from almost everywhere today, but how accurate are these websites in giving us actual facts and not just beliefs or people’s opinions. One of the most popular resources that we use to gather information is the famous Wikipedia. Type anything in any web search engine and you will most likely get results from Wikipedia. But is Wikipedia accurate? If we look at the websites URL, we can see that it’s a nonprofit organization, and a vast majority of people contribute, so there is no author, email, or phone number, or any way to contact. To verify how accurate all the information is. Putting Wikipedia to the test
"Knowledge is power only if the man knows what facts not to bother with" (Robert Staugton Lynd). In the novel, “All The King’s Men”, written by Robert Penn Warren, teaches the readers the power of knowledge and how it can affect people's lives. As he states, “The end of man is knowledge…”(9), he exhibits that knowledge is power. Jack Burden, private investigator that consists of searching dirt on other politicians, believes that knowledge can easily tear apart one's life. Through out the novel, Jack Burden, the main character, grapples the potency of his knowledge.
it is important to distinguish between what you know and do not or can not know.
Wikipedia is a free online encyclopedia with information created and maintained by volunteers around the world. Errors in the articles are inevitable due to the reliance on volunteers. This has lead to a stigma around the use of Wikipedia for academic purposes. Middlebury College’s history department went as far as to deny students from using Wikipedia as a source for exams and papers (Cohen, 2007). Even with the controversy surrounding Wikipedia’s credibility, it has been able to various roles in universities today.
One definition of knowledge is true belief based on strong evidence. What makes evidence “strong” enough and how can this limit be established?
In his essay, “Picking Nits on the Net,” John Oughton reminds Internet users that information on the Net does not have a guarantee of authenticity, so it must be carefully evaluated. Oughton gives some examples and also provides some useful advice on evaluating information on the Internet. Oughton’s writing is well supported by reasonable arguments, informative and very useful, and the examples that he uses are commonly encountered by most Internet users; however, sometimes he understates the advantages of valuable information on the Net.
With the advancement of technology and the exponential increase of Internet use, professionals-academic and business-are relying on electronic resources for information, research, and data. The Internet gives an individual access to a sea of information, data, and knowledge; plus, this vast amount of information is available in a matter of seconds, rather than hours or days. The ease of access, availability, up-to-the-second timeliness, and vastness of online resources is causing many professionals, however, to forgo the use of print sources. Online resources are useful to conduct scholarly research and 'may be convenient, but they have shortcomings that make print sources necessary for submitting high-quality assignments' (Dilevko & Gottieb, 2002, ¶ 1).
When I think about knowledge the first thing that comes to my mind is education. I believe that knowledge comes to people by their experiences in life. In other words, life is an instrument that leads me to gain knowledge. Many people consider that old people are wise because they have learned from good and bad experiences throughout their lives. Education requires work, dedication and faith to gain knowledge. We acquired knowledge through the guidance of from parents, role models, college/University teachers and life experiences.
Einstein once said: “Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler.” So let’s start answering the question by breaking it down. Firstly, let’s take out those 3 iffy words (important, experts, and opinion.) and replace them with laymen’s terms. Importance is defined usually by how much a something ‘matters’ in the grand scheme of things. Experts are people who have more experience than most in a particular field or skill. And opinions, via the Princeton dictionary, are defined as “a personal belief or judgment that is not founded on proof or certainty.” The question now reads: How much do the personal beliefs or judgments of experienced people, in one area, matter in the search for knowledge?