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Pyramid Of Needs

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There is a common belief in many societies around the world that only knowledge which has been produced or manufactured with difficulty is the knowledge that knowers truly value. Every knower has at least once in his life been in a situation or has experienced a situation which he would describe as tough, hard or difficult. Although there are some topics and concepts, for example rocket science, which are regarded to be rather difficult to understand and apply, there is no universally agreed upon, definite difficulty. It is a concept which seems to be universally understood but applied differently on the personal level. Whether something is regarded as difficult or not completely depends on the knower himself, specifically his personal beliefs, …show more content…

A knower may value certain knowledge the most because it is the knowledge which is most valued within his society and culture, although it might not help him be the most he can be. In the Blackfoot pyramid of needs, a Native American tribe, self-actualization is actually the base of the pyramid. In their belief, it is the foundation on which community actualization is built. It means that when a human is already the most he can be then the community in which he lives in or of which he is part of can be the most that they can be. Individual needs are not as important as the needs of the community which means that knowledge about community actualization is more vital or important and therefore of a higher value than knowledge about self-actualization. Their strongest need in Blackfoot society is what Cathy Blackstock describes as “cultural perpetuity” which refers to forming a strong and secure bond with the other members in our society. It is an understanding that one will be forgotten, but one has to ensure that the your culture’s teachings live on. So in their belief system, knowledge which ensure that one culture’s teachings live on is the most important and therefore the most valued. Overall, we can conclude that the most significant factor in determining which knowledge has to be valued the most depends the environment in which a knower lives in and not whether it has been produced with difficulty or

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