“The production of knowledge is always a collaborative task and never solely a product

of the individual.” Discuss.

In order to answer the question whether the production of knowledge is always a

collaborative task and never solely a product of the individual, first we should scrutinize the

definition of the word “knowledge”. Do we refer to personal knowledge, shared knowledge or

Plato’s definition of knowledge when we declare “the production of knowledge”? If it is

Plato’s definition of knowledge, then it must be true, believed and justified meaning it should

be validated by others. In this context, knowledge is produced through rational thought or

empirical evidence and it needs to correspond to the world that we live in. Furthermore, if the

production of knowledge is needed to be justified, then we can consider it as a social construct

and the production of a collaboration. In addition, in the context of shared knowledge,

knowledge that we gain is one that is shared among different circles such as university groups

or culture and it is based on a pre-existing knowledge. Any product of knowledge is one that

is obtained through the help of existing knowledge and thus it is a collaborative task since we

only elaborate or improve knowledge or add a different aspect or point of view. Moreover, for

the sake of clarity, we also should check the definition of the adverbs “always”, “never” an

“solely”. The adverb “always” can be defined as at all times; on all occasions, while “never”

is defined as at no time in the past or future; not ever and “solely” refers to something not

involving anyone or anything else; only. Furthermore, the adjective “collaborative” means

something that is produced by or involving two or more parties working together. Therefore,

we can conclude that production of knowledge should be invariably done by at least two

people working together and on no account should depend on only one person according to

this thesis.

Whether it is asking the opinion of a colleague or working together with a peer,

collaboration to produce something has been a common situation in human relations. Due to
the collaboration, people are able to produce new outputs or get a greater and deeper

understanding of an idea relatively easy. Regarding the production of knowledge,

collaboration is necessary as collaboration makes the process of producing knowledge easier

due to the chance of brainstorming or inspiring one another. Being able look a situation from

different perspectives can contribute to the production of knowledge. Moreover, we should

take into account the fact that all knowledge today is established through pre-existing

discoveries, ideas, beliefs and opinions. These previous finding are passed onto people who

add their perspectives into them to produce new knowledge and thus the production process

becomes collaborative as it does not come out of thin air and it is based on the work of others

even though this collaboration is not done in person. In addition, knowledge should be

justified in terms of Plato’s definition of knowledge and thus more than one individual’s

acceptance is required in order to validate it and make it justified true knowledge. However, it

is also claimed that some works or ideas are the product of an individual without any help

from others. In this case, personal knowledge, which is knowledge gained through personal

experience, practice and involvement, comes to mind. As personal knowledge depends on

many circumstances such as personal values, culture in which a person is raised and/or lives

and personal perspective, it can be argued that production of knowledge can sometimes be the

product of individual, which ultimately breaks the condition of “always” and thus makes the

thesis invalid. Furthermore, it could also be advocated that knowledge can become the

product of an individual if in the process of producing knowledge different than the previous

one, an individual has worked all by themselves without any help from others even though it

depends on pre-existing knowledge. However, at this point, we should scrutinize whether

previous findings and knowledge shared by others has any impact on personal knowledge. As

shared knowledge and personal knowledge is clearly intertwined and feed off each other,

knowledge is not only the product of a person since it is still affected by the opinions, beliefs
or ideas of others. To give an example, Thomas Edison who had contributed to modern

science, in particular physics, produced the knowledge of electric power generation and

phonograph among many others. He was able to use his perspective to explore different ideas.

However, his works depend on the previous findings and works of others as his ideas needed

to be logical, consistent and conformed by others. As a result, his production of knowledge

becomes the product of a collaborative work.

Natural sciences are one area of knowledge that produces knowledge as a

collaborative task. In natural sciences, knowledge is produced with the collaboration of

different people and their efforts. Scientists using a pre-existing knowledge to produce a new

one actually collaborates with the producers of the knowledge they have used without

realizing just as the ones before them have done. The experiments done by different scientists

add a new aspect to the existing knowledge and helps the forthcoming scientists to understand

it and elaborate on it. Even the scientists who have become the pioneers of their field must

have based their product of knowledge on the observations or assumptions done by their peers

or people who have come before them. Human Sciences is another area of knowledge that

produces knowledge as a collaborative task. Human sciences such as psychology,

anthropology, sociology or education requires collaborative work in order to produce

knowledge as the knowledge produced in this area is quite comprehensive and depends on

observation that may take many years before reaching to a conclusion. So as to answer the

question whether production of knowledge is always a collaborative task in these areas of

knowledge, we may need to answer the following questions. To what extend collaboration

happens in the aforementioned areas of knowledge so that new knowledge is produced? Also,

what is the role of personal knowledge if the production of knowledge is always a

collaborative task?
 Examining to what extend collaboration happens to produce knowledge in areas of

knowledge helps us understand the role collaboration plays in the process of knowledge

production and also helps to determine whether it is possible to evaluate the amount of

collaboration to produce knowledge. In natural sciences, collaboration is essential in almost

every part of knowledge production from hypothesizing knowledge to justifying it. According

to scientific method, knowledge should go through a peer review stage before it is published.

In other words, even if a scientist has detected the problem, formed a hypothesis, made a

prediction and tested it, they still need to take the opinions of other scientists to validate it. As

a result, a collaboration happens in the production of knowledge. Moreover, the published

scientific knowledge would still be modified and/or corrected by other people. Therefore, the

knowledge becomes the product of a group of people even if it is based on the reason and

logic of a sole person. Additionally, it is almost impossible to produce new knowledge

without being affected or inspired by the work of previous scientists in natural sciences. As

researching past findings to correct them or form a basis for current researches constitute a big

amount of the work of a scientist, it is quite likely that they would get inspiration from the

work of others whether it is to complete their findings or develop them. However, it is also

possible for scientists to discover new knowledge without being influenced. Accidental

discoveries are generally free of inspiration or the impact of other scientists and their work.

For instance, X-rays were discovered by Wilhelm Roentgen while he was working on cathode

ray tube. He was not inspired by any other pre-existing work or was he inclined to discover

something like this but his accidental discovery has become an important scientific

knowledge. Despite the existence of accidental discoveries, this produced knowledge would

still need to go through a peer review to justify knowledge and therefore collaboration still

happens.
 In human sciences, collaboration to produce knowledge happens frequently as, in

terms of psychology, sociology and education among many others, a certain degree of

observation and cooperation is needed to determine behavioural patterns and create

knowledge. As the human sciences determine people as their object, at least one scientist and

one object of its attention, aka an individual, is needed to produce knowledge. Moreover, the

produced knowledge, just as in natural sciences, is needed to go through a peer review process

in order to be validated. Even though collaboration happens quite frequently in human

sciences, there are still fields that do not need collaboration such as philosophy. Despite

getting inspired by previous philosophers and following their notions, it can be said that

philosophy is one area in which individuals may produce knowledge without any help from

others by using their sense perception. For instance, Thales of Miletus, known as the founder

of natural philosophy, is one of the oldest philosophers whose works seems not to have been

inspired by others even though it is impossible to know for sure.

Another question we need to answer is what the role of personal knowledge is if the

production of knowledge is always a collaborative task. According to our thesis statement,

under no circumstances is it possible for an individual to produce knowledge on their own.

However, if that is the case, then what is the function of personal knowledge? In natural

sciences, personal knowledge is used to add different perspectives and fresh ideas to pre-

existing knowledge. Scientists need their personal knowledge to make hypothesis or form

opinions through their sense perception and reason so that these findings could be justified if

possible and help natural sciences prosper and develop. Some argue that as the senses of

people are flowed, their observations and personal knowledge cannot be relied on. This

argument has its merits since sense perception can be mistaken due to illusions. However,

personal knowledge in the natural sciences are used to make predictions based on reason or

intuition of the individual and these intuitions would later undergo a testing and peer review
stages to validate knowledge. Therefore, with intertwinement of personal knowledge and

collaborative work, new knowledge can be produced.

In human sciences, personal knowledge has a tremendous function. As human sciences

take the way humans think or behave into account, their personal knowledge is used in order

to produce patterns and reach to new knowledge. The emphasis on language, reason and sense

perception on human sciences helps scientists to scrutinize human experiences and produce

knowledge that may create insight into humankind through the insight of individuals and their

personal knowledge. However, it can be argued that with the variety of human experiences, it

may be difficult to reach a consensus and produce new knowledge. Some researches may

remain inconclusive or scientists may manipulate the results to show desired results when it

becomes too difficult to produce new knowledge. However, the inconclusive researches may

help another scientist whose personal knowledge, reasoning and intuition may help them to

reach into a conclusion to produce new knowledge or correct the manipulated results.

Ultimately, the production of knowledge is always a collaborative task and never

solely a product of the individual due to the way we define the noun “knowledge” as

something needing to be justified. Due to this definition, we can conclude that all knowledge

should be accepted as collaboratively produced knowledge. Collaboration happens all the

time because of the pre-existing knowledge as well as the need to undergo a peer review

process in natural sciences and human sciences to validate knowledge. When we question the

function of personal knowledge in the collaborative knowledge production, we find that

personal knowledge, intuition and sense perception helps adding a new aspect which leads to

the production of knowledge.