ABSTRACT
This book is about the world around us, knowledge about the world around us and the communication of that knowledge, where ‘knowledge’ can be interpreted in the widest sense to include opinions and attitudes too. Much of it has been empirical, finding out as far as we have been able what the various actors within the overall system of communication think they are saying about the world, how it is received and how this relates to attitudes and behaviour. A little of this chapter will reflect on that empirical content-but we start from a much more abstract point of view, by thinking a little more about the idea of knowledge in a world of communicators. The inspiration for this abstract starting point derives from a paper given by Professor Pranap Sen of the University of Calcutta at the Indian Institute of Advanced Study in May 1995, entitled ‘Knowledge, truth and scepticism’.
