Which Sources of Knowledge- Books free essay sample

Which sources of knowledge- books, web sites, the media, personal experience, authorities or some other- do you consider most trustworthy, and why? In this essay I will be looking at the statement above in relation to the problems of knowledge, using where appropriate my experiences as a knower. To determine which source of knowledge one can claim to be the most trustworthy one would have to define them all first. The proposed sources are: books, websites, media, personal experience and authorities. After I have defined each source of knowledge, I will be looking at the reliability of each source, helping justifying my findings with the help of the problems of knowledge we have identified in class. Truth plays a large role in considering which source of knowledge is the most trustworthy. With truth there are many problems involved, for something to be true it has to be believed to be true and there have to be good grounds for it to be believed to be true. We will write a custom essay sample on Which Sources of Knowledge- Books or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page This links to perception, truth I think largely depends on the way one perceives it to be reliable. . . When talking about books one can already distinguish between the fiction and nonfiction books. Fiction is usually defined as fantasy and non real yet sometimes the author of the book makes it seem like non-fiction. This makes it sometimes hard for the reader to say if it is fiction or not. Due to the fact that fiction is fantasy it can be said that it is not considered to be true. Therefore fiction is not trustworthy as a source of knowledge. The other type of book is non-fiction. In the Oxford School Dictionary it is defined as writings that are not fiction; books about real people and things and true events. With this one can already identify a problem of knowledge: how can one say that something is true or not? Yet it has become a type of to deem worthy in society that nonfiction books are seen as reliable sources of knowledge. With these non-fiction books one must always be aware of possible biased authors. Things such as cultural background, age and religious beliefs will influe nce the perception of the truth. Books can be reliable as sources of knowledge, but I do think that one will have to consult more sources than only books to get a larger overview and more reliable view Some of the main sources include: books, the Internet, the media, personal experience and authorities. Between the sources mentioned above, all except personal experience are known as second-hand knowledge. This means that the knowledge is obtained through others’ research and observations. It is a way of sharing knowledge. Although all these sources are frequently used and are important they have restrictions and should not just be accepted as it may not be true knowledge as it may not be justified. Because of this, some sources are more trustworthy than others. 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 therefore the â€Å"knowledge† we thought to have had on the subject is wrong and is therefore not knowledge. For example Biology is one subject you 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. Some people are repeated sources of information. Such information, however, is always second-hand knowledge or third-, fourth-, or nth-hand knowledge. It is all hearsay. The further it is removed from our own personal experience, the more caution we must exercise before accepting a fact/claim. All of our historical knowledge is acquired in this way as is most of our knowledge of the sciences. We cant experience the past or personally repeat every experiment, so we must trust the specialists and accept, though not blindly, the discoveries they record for us. They key thing with knowledge from authority is that it can be double-checked and the work of scientists and historians is continually being ‘double checked’ as other workers in the same field (even sometimes us in our classrooms) repeat their experiments or investigations. A healthy suspicion of sources, the development of the skills required to check facts and an awareness of which sources are more or less reliable is a good way to ensure that the knowledge we receive from authority is good, but can be modified to a certain extent. In some cases I don’t trust/ believe what the authority says. For example, fighter jets are in battle and a jet is shot down. The head of the operation will tell the press that it was a unfortunate training exercise, this is what happened in China January 2011. This is done to avoid conflict. I’m not saying that the authority is not trustworthy, I’m saying that sometimes you have to speculate the information and think to yourself if its trust worthy. 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. I consider to be the most trustworthy is personal experience. I believe that personal experience is a trustworthy source because I would have been there to see and experience the event that had taken place in history first hand. I would have been able to tell my story from a first hand perspective about what had just happened. Personal experience could reach others through the media who would spread my story to everyone so that they to would understand what happened or what I had just observed. Personal experience could also be passed down from one generation to others enabling oral records to be passed down as trustworthy sources of knowledge. This would be considered trustworthy because it had come from within the family and had been told by a trusted member of ones family. Thus this is why I consider personal experience to be trustworthy. Though this is only one side of how personal experience can be considered to be trustworthy. Psychologists throughout history have discovered that these personal experiences such as eyewitness records are not trust worthy sources. According to Elizabeth Loftis â€Å"eyewitness records or personal experiences are not to be trusted because of the fact that memories are reconstructed and can be altered with the use of prepositions†. Bartlett discovered that memories are reconstructed to fit ones diagram making it easier to understand the story from their own perspective. Therefore memories are reconstructed, though key details are remembered and often overstated creating a story that is not accurate.

Essay Writing Tips - An Upper Csun Exam Sample

Essay Writing Tips - An Upper Csun Exam SampleOne of the main goals of writing an essay is to make sure that you have put in the necessary effort in order to cover a topic that is not really that hard. This can be done easily if you will just follow some essay writing tips that will help you in writing an upper csun exam sample. These tips may be considered as the same as those which you can find on the internet and in schools.The first tip that you will follow is to start the essay by outlining the main points that you want to cover in the essay. As mentioned earlier, the essay writing tip that you need to implement is to outline the main points and to make them as short as possible. This way, the reader will get a quick idea about what they will have to find out when they read your essay.Now that you have found a topic for your essay, you will begin to outline the specific information that you want to cover in your essay. This will help you avoid sounding overly wordy because you h ave already used your point as an introduction in your statement. And since the essay writing tip is to make the essay as short as possible, you can avoid adding any details that will cause the reader to skim through your essay. You can do this by providing details only when necessary.For the first paragraph, you will ask the reader to focus on the main question that you want to answer in your essay. In addition, you will also be able to provide the readers with the important detail that you are going to include in your essay. After you have found the main question, you will now ask the reader to focus on the next sentence in your essay. This is the best place to mention the main point again in your essay.For the next paragraph, you will again repeat the key point that you have stated in the first paragraph. After you have finished writing the first paragraph, you will now repeat the key point again. After completing the first two paragraphs, you will now refer to the fact that you have been briefly reviewing the facts, in your essay.Then, you will now repeat the major point from the first paragraph. This will help you finish the entire essay in one paragraph. After all these sections have been completed, you will now explain the most important aspect of your essay.All this is just a small tip that you can use in writing an essay. If you follow this advice, you will not only make sure that you have written an effective essay, but you will also leave an impression on the student's mind about what they will have to learn about on their test.