Win-Win Situation

With arguments there is often a winner and a loser or both are losers. Very rarely are there two winners. What I will attempt to do now is to create a win-win situation when dealing with private and public knowledge. There are often arguments over what should be private knowledge and what should be public knowledge. At what point should knowledge be kept to the individual, rather than be given to all of society? The best possible win-win situation that I can come up with is that only the information that is a necessity for the better functioning of society should be the knowledge that is public, all other knowledge that does nothing to better or worsen the society should be kept as private knowledge. Take the previous example of President Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinski. There was no gain to the society to know all of the details of President Clintons relationship with Monica, all that was needed to be known was that the relationship had indeed happened. Because the information was pushed and Clinton lied, impeachment was considered, whereas had the details of the relationship remained private impeachment never would have become an issue.

Controversy of Private and Public Knowledge

Another event that is often debated on what should be private knowledge and what public knowledge should be is the President Clinton and Monica Lewinski. There is a lot of controversy on what was considered to be relevant to the public in the question of the presidency. President Clinton’s impeachment was being based on the fact that he lied about his relationship with Monica, that he did not have sexual relations with her where he did in fact have oral sex. His lying to the people of America is what was questioned on impeachment, therefore was it really necessary for the public to know about the extent of the relationship? If the impeachment was based solely on the lies, then if the specifics of the affair had been kept as private knowledge there would be nothing to include in the impeachment. It really was of no advantage to the society of the public knowing the specifics of the relationship. In this case there is a controversy over what should or should not be public knowledge.

Private and Public Knowledge in Art

Public knowledge is referred to as “knowledge by description.” Its function is to observe the subject. Knowledge is considered to be public when the proposition is true, when you believe that it is true, and when the is supporting evidence without any opposing evidence. Cubist Cat can be viewed publicly by all. When one looks at the painting it can be concluded that it is made entirely out of geometric shapes. The viewer may also conclude that the colors in the painting cover the entire visible spectrum and that the shapes are better defined by the black lined separating each one. As with everything there are both advantages and disadvantages to disadvantaged to public knowledge. Some advantages of public knowledge are that it can be proven true because it is based on what is real. Nothing is inferred about the topic, the only thing proven is what can be seen by all, like the painting being made entirely out of geometric shapes.
Private knowledge is referred to as “knowledge by acquaintance.” Its function is to duplicate and reproduce an experience or feeling. Some examples of private knowledge are belief, opinion and feeling. No proof is needed for private knowledge because it is different for each individual. When viewing Cubist Cat using private knowledge, one viewer may just see the image of a cat, whereas others may see something else. As with public knowledge, private knowledge also has its advantages and disadvantages. An advantage to private knowledge is that the topic does not just exist, but also has a meaning for each individual person. One viewer of Cubist Cat may conclude that the colors help to create a feeling of peacefulness, whereas another concludes that they create a feeling of serenity. Because private knowledge is different for everyone it is very difficult to define and express so that others will fully understand what the viewer is feeling. Private knowledge is not always reliable because the knowledge is different for everyone, and it cannot be proved to be true.

Evaluating First Set of Posits

After reviewing my previous posits I found that they contained my own bias. No one in the world thinks the exact same way that I do, each individual has a different definition of what private and public knowledge is. My own definition is not necessarily the only or correct definition. With this blog I want to discuss my own definitions of the types of knowledge, where these definitions are relevant and where they are not, and how these definitions can be demonstrated. I want both myself and any who view this blog to be able to analyze a definition of the two different types of knowledge and the relevancy of this definition.

Private Knowledge

The majority vote of my poll shows that the common definition of private knowledge is ‘learned knowledge”. I, however, feel that a more accurate definition of private knowledge is knowledge by acquaintance. There are many different aspects that create private knowledge, but the basic idea of private knowledge is knowledge in which the function is to either duplicate of reproduce experience. Experiences are something that are individual and are unable to replicated for another person, and can only be shared through one’s acquaintance with another; therefore becoming knowledge by acquaintance. Some examples of what private knowledge is are belief, opinion, feeling, sensing, and intuition. These are all examples of what is considered to be private knowledge because they are unique to an individual and can only be experienced through the acquaintance with that particular individual. Because private knowledge is unique to each individual this type of knowledge is difficult to articulate and share with others. While many consider private knowledge to be learned knowledge, it is in fact knowledge by acquaintance due to it being unique for every individual. Anyone can learn the same lesson from an experience, while the feelings felt during the experience is individual for each person.

Rewrite of posits and explanation of poll

Rewrite of posits
a)What more can I understand about private and public knowledge and their differences?
b)What, if anything, do I understand about the different definitions/interpretations of what is considered to be private and public knowledge?
c)What can I learn about what society deems as public knowledge vs. what an individual may consider private knowledge?
d)What do I not understand about truth in relation to public knowledge?
e)What do I not understand about one’s personal self and private knowledge?

I have written my previous posits into the ones above because this blog is just as much for me as it is for my readers, I am learning and discovering along with them.

Some may think that the poll I posted was biased, or in the least did not work to eliminate bias. There is a reason as to why I used this specific blog. For one I wanted to see what the majority answer would be when a person was forced to pick one of the four given answers. Another was that I wanted to demonstrated that there may be multiple definitions for both private and public knowledge. The majority of the people who took this poll answered that public knowledge is knowledge defined as ‘knowledge known as common sense” and that private knowledge is defined as “learned knowledge”. I recognize that there may be multiple definitions to both of these terms, but using this blog I will demonstrate as to why I feel that the best answer to this poll was when public knowledge is defined as “knowledge by description” and private knowledge is “knowledge by acquaintance”.

Other intersting blogs

Here are three other blogs that i think you may find interesting:

Central Notes of an Aspiring Super Hero: http://lifesizesuperman.blogspot.com/
Can You Handle the Truth?: http://truthfromatarheel.blogspot.com/
just Moe: http://www.english101isawesome.blogspot.com/

Relevant Links

I have researched a number of alternate web sites that center around private and/or public knowledge. Each site is listed along with the implications of the site.


http://www.marxists.org/reference/subject/philosophy/works/en/russell1.htm Theory of Knowledge: This gives an overview of Bertand Russell, and his theory of knowledge, discussing private and public knowledge, but does little to discuss the implications of both.

http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/knowledge-acquaindescrip/
Knowledge by Acquaintance vs. Description: This site gives both the definition to knowledge by acquaintance and knowledge by description, as well as the criticisms that go along with each of these two types of knowledge.

http://www.advaita.org.uk/discourses/past_messages/knowledge_waite.htm
Knowledge and Experience: This site explains what it means for public knowledge to be knowledge by experience, because this type of knowledge can be described by is not the same unless it is experienced.

http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/epistemology/
Epistemology: This site gives an overview of what defines epistemology and gives the implications of each subtopic within. This site gives in an in depth look at many of the implications involved in knowledge, such as ambiguity and skepticism. This site also gives some of the sources of knowledge, such as perception and reason.

http://www.ils.unc.edu/~losee/b5/node9.html
Belief and Knowledge: This web site discusses justified true belief, and what is considered to be justified true belief, as well is giving the implications to truth.

http://www.iep.utm.edu/t/truth.htm
Truth: This website defines truth and gives all of the relevant implications to what truth is, as well as some constraints to what determines truth.

http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/truth-correspondence/
The Correspondence Theory of Truth: This web site defines and describes what is known as the correspondence theory of truth. It is important to understand this theory because truth plays such a large role in determining what is private and whet is public knowledge.

http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/truth-coherence/
The Coherence Theory of Truth: This website defines and describes what is known as the coherence theory of truth. It is important to understand this theory because truth plays such a large role in determining what is private and what is public knowledge.

http://www.iep.utm.edu/p/PeirceBi.htm
Charles Sanders Peirce: This web site is a biography of Charles Sanders Peirce, the founder of pragmatism, and discusses his pragmatic theory of truth.

http://philosophy.lander.edu/intro/articles/pragmatism-a.pdf
“The Pragmatic Theory of Truth” By William James: This web site describes the pragmatic theory more in depth, and was in fact written by Peirce’s colleague William James.

http://www.mnstate.edu/hong/PHIL101/parti.htm
Knowledge and Certainty: This web site discusses knowledge by saying that knowledge is justified true belief. It then goes on to discuss this definition of knowledge in terms of opinion, experiences, and the senses.

http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/justep-intext/
Internalist vs. Externalist Conceptions of Epistemic Justification: This web site provides the implications on defining knowledge.

http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=UCdQnMqZfAMC&oi=fnd&pg=PR11&ots=LN_qZg95yS&sig=sDMxGeWb1_AmzNml72T353SSIY8#PPA103,M1
Plato on Knowledge and Reality: The web site gives Plato’s ideas and theories on the topic of knowledge and reality. This shows bias towards Plato’s individual ideas, although his theories are backed up with evidence.

http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0003-2638%28197603%2936%3A3%3C150%3AIUJTBK%3E2.0.CO%3B2-H&size=LARGE&origin=JSTOR-enlargePage
Is Undefeated Justified True Belief Knowledge? By Jeffrey Olen: Discusses the implications of justified true belief and its relation to knowledge

http://www.jstor.org/view/00318205/di014961/01p0052r/0
Evaluational Illusions and Skeptical Arguments: Discusses skepticism in arguments of knowledge, eliminates biases created through skepticism.

http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/skepticism/
Skepticism: Describes the different types of skepticism and skepticisms implications in relation to knowledge.

http://www.iep.utm.edu/d/descarte.htm
René Descartes: This web site provides a biography of Descartes life works and his theories in relation to skepticism and knowledge.

http://www.jstor.org/view/00264423/di984380/98p0116l/0
III. Knowledge and Belief By Norman Malcolm: Describes what can be seen as knowledge through the eyes of Norman Malcolm, a philosopher. Belief cannot be mistaken for knowledge because knowledge can be determined though certainty.

http://www.jstor.org/view/0022362x/di972692/97p0441f/0
Knowledge of Other Minds: Discusses the idea of the knowledge that other people have, in other words their private knowledge. This knowledge is individual and only assumptions can be made.

http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/evidence/
Evidence: This article defines what is meant by evidence in knowledge and its implications, such as objectivity and publicity.

Topic for this Blog

1) The topic of this blog that I plan to discuss is centered around public vs. private knowledge.

2) Posits
a) What, if any, is the causal relationship between ones own personal expression and determining what is public or private knowledge?
b) What, if any, is the causal relationship between what society deems as public knowledge, and what you yourself feel should be private knowledge from society.
c) What, if any, is the causal relationship between truth and public knowledge?
d) What, if any, is the causal relationship between an individuals beliefs and private knowledge?

3) The purpose of this part of this posting to reveal to the reader my own biases and perspective on this topic.
Up until last year I never really thought about the different types of knowledge, private and public. I just lived my life day to day without thinking what is seen as public or what is seen as private. This was until in my philosophy class the topic came up briefly, what is seen as public knowledge and what is seen as private? This got me to thinking, is there really a difference? Well, this pretty much depends on your definition of the two, which will be discussed in this blog. When I started to think about it, I determined that there is, in fact, a difference between the two. There are things that you choose not to share with other people, and things that you do chose to share. Therefore there are things that are kept private and others that are public. This blog is not to debate which of the two is stronger, more important, or more defining of a person, but is instead to bring these two types of knowledge and there definitions into the open and make you think about the world and all that you know.