What Kinds  of Second Hand Knowledge Are

There?Mina Edwards, Cat Mckay, Michael Pollock, Misa Yamada

Advantages/Disadvantages

• Advantage: Increased Quantity of Knowledgeo By sharing our experiences (through language) we

can learn a lot more about the world

• Disadvantage: Decreased Quality of Knowledgeo "Authority Worship"-  blindly accepting what we

are told. 

Types of Second-hand Knowledge:

• Cultural Tradition• School• The Internet ***• Expert Opinion• The News Media

Also known as Knowledge by Authority or Knowledge by Testimony.....

Culture• 'Normality'   

o clothing o food o customs

• Balance o respecting traditional beliefso being willing to change or question them 

• 'Common Sense' is derived from cultural traditions

School• Given knowledge through teachers and textbooks

• Strengthso Considered  to be very reliableo Broader understanding of knowledge (ability to

ask questions and receive answers)

• Weaknesseso Given by an (often) unquestioned authority figureo Taken from second, third, forth-hand knowledge

The Internet 

• People rely on the internet for information

• Strengthso Fast and accessibleo Huge quantities of information

 • Weakness

o Information can be incorrect or biased

• Example: o Wikipedia- it is an open source, so people can

add           anything, but everyone can share their knowledge

Expert Opinion

• Rely on expert opinion 

• Strength- valuable information can be added to subjects, such as science 

• Weakness- experts can be incorrect and have limited competence 

• Example:o History- rely on information given in textbooks

Strength- we can have some idea of what could have happened

Weakness- bias and no way of knowing the exact truth

News Media

• Strengthso Widely available from multiple sourceso Varied range of bias can even out

• Weaknesseso Often taken as fact without questiono Rarely unbiasedo Focused on extraordinary news, bad news in order

to attract consumers