Background Knowledge

Knowledge that is taken for granted by an individual or Culture.

Background knowledge can ossify — becoming rigid and unexamined. When this happens, dependent knowledge is put at risk because the underlying explanations are forgotten. This makes the Inexplicit foundations of a culture vulnerable to loss.

Connections

• •A component of Culture — shared assumptions within a group
• •Contains Inexplicit knowledge that may never be articulated
• •Vulnerable to loss when traditions of criticism weaken
• •Endangered by Revolutionary change that ignores embedded solutions
• •Institutions encode and preserve background knowledge
• •Related to Unconscious ideas — knowledge we act on without awareness