Knowledge in Different Communities

“What is knowledge in one community may not be true or count as knowledge in another community” (Warzecka).

I’m pretty sure everyone has at least once been in a situation where you say something, and someone else doesn’t understand. This is better described in the article titled “The Construction of Knowledge in Organizations: Asking the Right Questions about the Challenger” by Dorothy A. Winson. In this article, she wrote about the Challenger explosion. This accident was caused due to a failure in the O-Rings. Apparently, the engineers knew about this problem, and they tried warning the managers about it. But there was a problem when processing this information due to communication failure and different point of views from the evidence.

I’m going to give another example, but this time I’m going into religion. Let’s say that I want to persuade someone that God exists. I’m not going to go up to that person and say, “God is real, and if you don’t believe that, then you’re going to hell.” No, that’s not how it’s done. First, you have to approach them with something general, and from there start elaborating more into your main purpose. Not only that, but I will also be giving evidence as to why God exists. For example, I could say that if God didn’t exist we wouldn’t live, or we wouldn’t have such beautiful landscapes. But what if the evidence presented is not enough for the other person? For example, that other person could say that all of this was caused by the Big Bang Theory, and then we get into a huge argument. The problem here is that I have some evidence that proves that God does exist, but the other person uses this evidence as the effect of something else. What seems as evidence for one, may not signify anything for others.

Why is this? Is it that people are incompetent? Or is it because they lack knowledge? The reason behind this is that because people have different points of view, and they use different evidence to prove something. In order for a persuasion to occur, the person persuading must have sufficient knowledge and evidence regarding that subject. And the person being persuaded must have an open mind and be able to accept other pieces of evidence.

Not only that, but one must try to avoid any communication failure. Let me clarify myself more. If you want to get your argument across, you’re not only going to say a few words, and expect for the other person to understand everything that’s on your mind. (Just remember that no one can read your mind, so if you don’t say it, then the other people won’t know). You have to make sure to share your whole knowledge to the others. Not only that, but it’s also important that you do it in a clear and concise manner. This way, there will be less probabilities of the others being confused.

When trying to present an argument, there are many points that one has to cover. One has to be very knowledgeable in that field. Not only that, but they must have enough evidence to support their claim. They must also be able to communicate the information effectively. By doing this, the process of persuading will be easier. Just remember to be nice and be open minded.