The concepts of personal knowledge and shared knowledge are what make up everything known by a single person. The term ‘personal knowledge’ refers to knowledge obtained by a single person through the methods of individual experiences or observations and is sourced internally. An example of personal knowledge would be the knowledge of one’s feeling and emotions – as this cannot be perfectly replicated by any other person. ‘Shared knowledge’, on the other hand, refers to the agreed knowledge obtained through others or sourced externally. Shared knowledge can also include opinions – just so long as these opinions are shared by a large percentage of people. An everyday example of shared knowledge would be the natural sciences (Biology, Chemistry, Physics), as they are contributed and agreed upon by millions of people around the world. Whilst some may believe that one of the two forms of obtaining knowledge is truer than the other, there are many rational arguments for each side. In some instances, personal knowledge can be more trusted or true as opposed to shared knowledge. This conclusion can be made through testing the ways of …show more content…
An example of this occurrence is the ‘Mandela Effect’, which speaks of the collective misremembering of common events or details. The concept of the Mandela Effect rose to popularity on the internet in 2010, when many claimed to falsely remember that Nelson Mandela had passed away in prison during the 1980s. This is proven to be false, as Mandela was freed in 1990 and lived on until he passed away in 2013 – despite those who insist that they remember differently. It is said that the Mandela Effect is a direct result of people creating false memories. This distortion of memories is very common in everyday life and mostly occurs unnoticed by the person undergoing the process that goes by the name of