Opinions of Experts in the Search of Knowledge - Assignment Example

Opinions of Experts in the Search of Knowledge How Important are the Opinions of Experts in the Search of Knowledge? The pursuit of knowledge is not an easy one. The knower has to be inquisitive, sincere, and observant. But what do we know and how do we know? As Samuel Johnson has been quoted in Boswell’s Life of Johnson, “Knowledge is of two kinds. We know a subject ourselves, or we know where we can find information on it.” (The Quotations Page, 2010). The statement provides us with a stepping stone towards analysing the knowledge issue under consideration. In fact, one could maintain that expert opinion is the invaluable source of information that strengthens our knowledge. When we know a subject ourselves, things are less complicated. For example, when a child learns counting, she can count the fingers in her hand. Generally, a human child has five fingers in each hand. Exceptions apart, the child counts her fingers in each hand and obtains the knowledge herself that she has got ten fingers in her two hands. Similarly, when the child looks at the sky, she finds the birds flying and learns that birds fly. However, this perception may not be very much true. The reason is that all birds do not fly. Now the child needs a source of information which will tell her that all birds do not fly (For instance, Kiwis don’t fly). Hence the child needs to know that where can she find complete information and true knowledge, and that’s why she needs to be sent to a school. In the school, the teacher of Life Science would tell her that generally birds fly, but all birds do not fly. Else, she can gather this information by reading books, watching educational television channels, etc. Either we can discover things ourselves, or we need a guide to help us comprehend the world around. This guide can be a book or a journal, or an expert. An expert in a field is a valuable source of information concerning that field. When I was in the primary school, I had an interesting incident in my life. One day in science class, Mr. Williams, our science teacher, told us that the plants cannot survive without light. Plants need light energy to manufacture their food. I raised my hand and argued that watering the plants was enough for their survival. The plants in the garden needed only water to grow, and nothing else. Mr. Williams was patient and he asked the other children that whether they agreed with me or not. Some of my classmates were confused. Mr. Williams understood that mere theoretical knowledge was not enough. Immediately, he brought a plant in a pot from the garden, wrapped it in a black wrapper, and kept it in a corner of the classroom. After four days, the black wrapper was removed and we found that the plant had drooped down. The green leaves had become pale, and the plant had died. That day, I not only learned that plants need light energy to survive, but also apprehended the importance of experiments. If Mr. Williams had not been an expert teacher, he couldn’t have taught us certain vital facts about plant life. Also, without this practical lesson, I might have not been able to understand the importance of experiments in acquiring knowledge. Let me recollect another example from the High School days. I was trying to solve a math problem in the class. A part of the problem asked, “If there is one railway station after every seven kilometres along a seventy kilometres long railway track, how many stations are there along the track?” I obtained the number of railway stations to be ten after simply dividing seventy by seven, but the answer was wrong. I told the problem to the math teacher and he helped me. He said, “Why are you not counting the station which is positioned at the beginning of the track? This is the trick of the problem … you have to add a ‘one’ to the number you have obtained. In this case, the answer will be ten plus one equal to eleven!” Thus, once again, expert opinion proved to be very important in search for knowledge in my life. Generally, tricks in math problems cannot be solved without expert help. However, there can be other sources of knowledge too. When I was a small child, I had burned my hand in the flame of a candle. Thence from, I developed a natural tendency to avoid fire. No doubt, I had myself obtained the knowledge that going close to a flame can be really dangerous. In this case, practical experience helped me. I would furnish a recent example too in this context. A few days back, I was watching a television program wherefrom I came to know a strange fact. I came to know that elephants cannot jump! I am inquisitive about wildlife, and this fact about elephants was really interesting to me which I discovered through a television channel by chance! Yet, I must say that expert guidance is a vital need when it comes to knowing things in a better way. An expert is always helpful in making us understand the necessary concepts clearly. An expert can eliminate our natural weaknesses of understanding by innovative methods and priceless opinions. To understand how to advance in search of knowledge, let’s now analyse the concept of knowledge itself. The realm of the theories of knowledge consists of the doxastic and nondoxastic theories. According to the doxastic theories, any epistemological theory that is reasonable will decide the justifiability of a belief as a function of the other beliefs one holds (at least, partly). The nondoxastic theories stress that many other considerations along with the existing beliefs are needed to be justified. In this context, internalism tells us that the justifiability of a belief must be a function of the internal states of our minds. Externalism, on the other hand, tells us that more than the mere internal states of mind interfere in the justification process of the beliefs (Pollock, John L. & Cruz, Joseph, 1999). Traditionally, knowledge can be thus defined as “justified true belief”, where we explore the different dimensions of material and celestial truth (Lehrer, Keith, 2000). However, knowledge is not without its limits and it has been ultimately viewed as a mental state by many scholars (Williamson, Timothy, 2002). Is this mental state really sensitive to the external environment of the knower? Can we rule out internalism completely? But in that case too, we cannot overlook certain aspects of knowledge itself. For example, the phenomenal conception for proof and tendency of evidential analysis cannot be exploited without expert opinion. Knowing being the most pervasive factive state of mind, expert opinion in this context is correlated to forecasting and group processes as well (Sackman, Harold, 1974). Despite the scope of counterarguments as per internalism and manifestation of the inner abilities of mind in the form of knowledge, expert opinion remains important. A pragmatic approach towards argumentation theory can mark expert opinion as a form of constructive argument inside the surroundings of the knower. Specialized sectors of knowledge like science, law, medicine, government policy, etc. have become the basic platform of our day to day decision making; and expert opinion always counts (Walton, Douglas N., 1997). Knowledge management coupled with expert opinion thus plays a crucial role in the sphere of corporate finance and business economics. In the year 2000, a group of scholars from Harvard Business School studied the implication of knowledge in the field of business and commerce. The analyses have shown that expert opinion always counts in business and the knowledge based concerns are no exceptions (Davenport, Thomas H. & Prusak, Laurence, 2000). Reasoning is indispensable in deriving knowledge. Experimentation with reasoning techniques can determine novel ways to model solutions to different problems. This is a methodological knowledge based approach, where expert opinion is crucial in forecasting and linking different scientific processes in the realm of artificial intelligence. Moreover, reasoning and analysis of knowledge under expert guidance is again important in distributed systems to facilitate scientific research and innovation (Fagin, Ronald, 2003). In the field of management, example of Japanese corporations can elucidate the concept of “expert opinion” more. In the mid 1990s, the Japanese corporations catered with “knowledge creation” at the organizational level which is still a guiding force in the Japanese corporate sector. Expert opinion creates the very dynamics of innovative thought and problems are simplifies with the company management taking control of the knowledge processes (Nonaka, Ikujiro & Takeuchi, Hirotaka, 1995). If there is room for controversy in relation to the question under discussion, then the controversy is rather theoretical. Expert opinions are always heard with great interest and we often follow them in utter reliance. Practical world examples are profuse. Indeed, there is less scope of controversy particularly when the expert opinion is empirically supported. Reiterating my story, when an experiment establishes the expert opinion, knowledge obtained thereby becomes more powerful and imposing. In the actual world, knowledge and expert opinion are very much complimentary to each other. The overall implication is that the opinions of experts in the search of knowledge are crucial. And we must reiterate that expert opinion is the invaluable source of information that strengthens our knowledge as a whole. References Davenport, Thomas H. & Prusak, Laurence. 2000. Working Knowledge: How Organizations Manage What They Know? Boston. Harvard Business School Press. Fagin, Ronald. 2003. Reasoning About Knowledge. Cambridge. MIT Press. Lehrer, Keith. 2000. Theory of Knowledge. Boulder. Westview Press. Nonaka, Ikujiro & Takeuchi, Hirotaka. 1995. The Knowledge Creating Company: How Japanese Companies Create the Dynamics of Innovation? New York. Oxford University Press. Pollock, John L. & Cruz, Joseph. 1999. Contemporary Theories of Knowledge. Lanham. Rowman and Littlefield Publishers Inc. Sackman, Harold. 1974. Delphi Assessment: Expert Opinion, Forecasting and Group Process, Issue 1283. Santa Monica. Rand. The Quotations Page. 2010. Boswell’s Life of Johnson. Quoted at http://www.quotationspage.com/search.php3?Search=knowledge&startsearch=Search&Author=&C=mgm&C=motivate&C=classic&C=coles&C=poorc&C=lindsly, accessed 28 August, 2010 Walton, Douglas N. 1997. Appeal to Expert Opinion: Arguments from Authority. University Park. Pennsylvania State University Press. Williamson, Timothy. 2002. Knowledge and Its Limits. New York. Oxford University Press. Read More