Communities

It's been a long time, decades since I have read Michael Polanyi's famous book
"Personal Knowledge" but I believe it's relevant.
I shall risk trying to explain some of the ideas that remain:
Knowledge and the attendant understanding is an affair of communities.
The quantum mechanics community is relatively separate from the pure mathematics community etc...
Each community not only has its assertions and theories but they also have
tacit knowledge that is transmitted by living and working in those communities.
You just cant pick up a book and expect to understand easily by turning the pages.
Communities probably even have different criteria for what passes as truth.
It's that deep.

More later.