The glory days of Antiquity where a single person could aspire to hold the entirety of human knowledge within their own mind are long over. Even the polymaths of the Enlightenment realised the limits of their own abilities and often referred to colleagues for areas they felt less confident about. In our days of strict specialisation, even scientists would refrain from making judgements even about some aspects of their own field of study.
Human knowledge has become too complicated, which means we can only hold a certain belief about things that we haven’t researched in deep detail if we confide in some experts. Which experts, though? Mainstream has one set of experts, conspiracy theorists have another one. If you want somebody with authority to validate a belief you are deeply emotionally involved in, chances are you will manage to find them.
Does that mean that true knowledge is unreachable? Are we doomed to enter a solipsistic cave with no ways out? Surely not! The fact that knowledge is an aggregate of many individual efforts means, however, that we need to be able to trust others.
Want to find out more? Read the Critical Balance e-book for youth workers on critical thinking and conspiracy theories!
