The know vulgar refers to a set of disordered knowledge generated spontaneously, from the experience of people and therefore without necessarily being adjusted or in a proven way to reality. For instance: the street that a bus passes by, the pain caused by getting burned, how the remote control is operated.
As people necessarily live in society, and knowledge tends to be transmitted, it is very likely that this knowledge found through the experience are transmitted by the fact of belonging to a community, without each person having had the experience of knowing validity in the flesh.
Characteristics of vulgar knowledge
Common knowledge is contrasted with the other more common form of knowledge, which is the scientific knowledge or rational.
Common knowledge is:
- Sensitive. Because although part of the events is structured with the apparent that is what is seen;
- Superficial. Because it does not deepen the process of knowing;
- Subjective. Because the application of the facts depends on the arbitrariness of the observer;
- Dogmatic and static. Well, it is conditioned to a large number of principles of society;
- Unsystematic. Well, it does not have defined criteria to reach it but it will happen by chance.
The large number of demands that scientific knowledge presents, for its knowledge to be valid, can be understood through the contrast with vulgar knowledge, which does not have any of these demands.
Emotional factors
A particular element of vulgar knowledge is the fact of being pierced or colored by extra theoretical factors, usually emotional. This means that in this kind of knowledge, people cannot represent things as they are, but must do so in a distorted way.
A large part of the history of the world is marked by disputes and controversies between different communities, in which usually within one there is a prejudice and a consideration of the other, which progresses over the years and between generations: it is about , without a doubt, of a knowledge of a vulgar character.
Importance of vulgar knowledge
On some occasions, the scope of the idea of vulgar knowledge to some questions of an esoteric or religious nature, believing that all knowledge of this type is obtained by the need of people to live in a world that they do not fully understand.
However, in a much simpler way, vulgar knowledge appears indispensable for all people, since a great amount of things that are known are not founded on scientific methods, and never will.
The experience of living grants certain knowledge, even some essential on certain occasions, which cannot be demonstrable or verifiable.
Common sense
Because vulgar knowledge is situated in a community, it usually forms what is known as’common sense’.
However, its condition of not having been proven in any of the ways that science offers for these purposes, permanently puts it at risk of being inaccurate, or even completely false.
Examples of vulgar knowledge
- The street that a bus passes through.
- The pain that falling can cause.
- How some fruits are taken from the earth.
- Learn how to drive.
- The color black as a symbol of mourning.
- The effect of a scare as a hiccup healer.
- Most trades are acquired by merely observing someone else performing them.
- A person holding an ‘SOS’ sign, symbolizing a call for help.
- Know that throughout the year the seasons follow one another, and in one part it will be hotter than in another.
- The pain of burning.
- The different effects that the consumption of different foods can cause.
- The ways to communicate with the gods to make it rain.
- The danger of putting your fingers in a socket.
- The child’s first language learning.
- The use of red ribbons against bad luck.
- How the remote control is operated.
- A family meal recipe, which crossed different generations.
- The symbolism of the traffic light, which the cars will understand with the instruction to move forward or stop.
- A prejudice that one community has over another.
- The way in which fire can be generated.