The phrase “common knowledge,” in its common usage, refers to knowledge that is held by (nearly) everyone, at least within some given community. For example, it is common knowledge in modern society that the Earth is round and orbits the sun, or that 2+2=4. These are facts that I can assume that you, my readers, already know or can easily verify, and it’s common practice not to give citations or acknowledge sources for them.
Today, though, we’re not really going to be discussing this common, informal usage of “common knowledge.” Nor are we going to devote this post to facts about the musician behind the classic hip hop album, Resurrection. (Though did you know that the track “I Used to Love H.E.R.” launched a feud with Ice Cube that was eventually settled at a private meeting organized by Louis Farrakhan at his house??) Rather, we’re going to delve into “common knowledge” as a fascinating technical concept in philosophical logic, epistemology, and social science.
Let’s start with the idea of mutual knowledge. Suppose that there is a group of people, and there is a fact that is known by everyone in the group. Then this fact is mutual knowledge among the members of the group. The classification of a fact as mutual knowledge seems like a pretty strong assertion, but we can (and often do) ask for even more. We can ask, for example, that not only does everyone in the group know the fact, but everyone in the group knows that everyone in the group knows the fact. Or we can go further, and ask that everyone in the group knows that everyone in the group knows that everyone in the group knows the fact. Carrying this process to infinity, we obtain the concept of common knowledge.
To be more precise, let us say that a fact is first-order knowledge among members of a group if everyone knows it, i.e., it is mutual knowledge. Let us say it is second-order knowledge if everyone in the group knows that everyone in the group knows it. Continue in this manner. In general, if n is a natural number and we have already defined the notion of n-th order knowledge, then a fact is (n+1)-st order knowledge among members of a group if it is n-th order knowledge and everyone in the group knows that it is n-th order knowledge. A fact is then common knowledge among members of a group if it is n-th order knowledge for every natural number n.
Let’s look at an example to try to clarify the distinction between mutual knowledge and common knowledge. Suppose that all of the students in a class have arrived to a classroom early and are sitting at their desks, and there is a large beetle crawling on the wall. Every student sees the beetle, so the presence of the beetle in the classroom is mutual knowledge among the students. None of the students particularly wants to deal with the beetle, though, so each student pretends to ignore it. As far as each student is concerned, they might be the only student who has noticed the beetle. The presence of the beetle is thus not even second-order knowledge among the students. Then the professor walks in the room, sees the beetle, points at it, and loudly exclaims, “Ah, I see we have a beetle auditing the class today!” Now, suddenly, the students know that they all know that there is a beetle in the room, and they know that they all know that they all know that there is a beetle in the room, and so on. The presence of the beetle has suddenly become common knowledge.
In the grand scheme of things, the study of common knowledge, and higher order knowledge in general, is a rather recent development in philosophy; David Hume was perhaps the first major philosopher to consider it, in A Treatise of Human Nature. It has become extensively studied since then, though, and, if one knows where to look, it can be found almost anywhere.
Consider the following example, due to philosopher Alan Hájek. You are in a restaurant, and a server walking by you trips on his shoelaces and spills a bit of soup on your shirt. You are, naturally, upset, and the server becomes apologetic and says, “It was my fault.” This is of course something almost everyone would expect him to say, but let’s look at it more closely. Why exactly did he say it, and why is it important? Everyone involved in the incident already knew that the server was at fault, so this utterance would seem to add no new information. However, it actually can be the key to ensuring that the incident does not escalate further, by establishing the server’s fault as common knowledge. Indeed, before the server’s admission, you might have thought that the server considered you at fault, which surely would have made you even angrier. After the server’s statement, some common ground has been established, and, with luck and maybe a free dessert, the situation can calmly be resolved.
The notion of higher order knowledge also shows up all the time in game theory (and, therefore, economics, international relations, etc.). When formulating an ideal strategy for a game, one must consider not only the current state and rules of the game, but also the knowledge and strategies of all of one’s partners and adversaries. But they, in turn, of course, are considering your knowledge and strategies when formulating their own, and one quickly reaches vertiginous levels of higher order knowledge. If you want to see common knowledge repeatedly raise its many confusing heads, just head to a high stakes poker game. (“I know that she would almost never bluff in this spot. But we’ve been playing together for days, so I also know that she knows that I know this, so maybe she’s actually more likely to bluff. But maybe she knows that I know that she knows that I know this, which means…I don’t know. I call.”)
We end today with a puzzle that has common knowledge at its core: There are two prisoners, Louis and Marie, each in their own prison cell. Each looks out on their own little yard. Louis can see 8 trees in his yard; Marie can see 12. One day, the warden brings them together and tells them both, “Between the two of you, you can see a total of either 18 or 20 trees. Every day at 5 pm, I will go to each of you. If one of you tells me the correct total number of trees in your two yards, you will immediately be set free. If you are incorrect, you will immediately be executed. If you say nothing, you will stay in prison for another day.”
Louis and Marie are not able to directly communicate with one another during this meeting with the warden, and no communication is possible between their two cells. Each was fully aware of themselves during the meeting, though; the contents of the warden’s speech have become common knowledge between them.
Q: Assuming Louis and Marie are entirely rational (and that their rationality is common knowledge between them) can they guarantee their release? If so, how? How long will it take?
We’ll talk about the solution beneath this nice painting of trees. Meanwhile, take a few minutes to think about it yourselves.
At first, it might not seem like the warden’s speech gave any really useful information. Louis now knows that Marie sees either 10 or 12 trees, and Marie now knows that Louis sees either 6 or 8 trees. But it seems that neither can be sure which of the two numbers the other sees.
If we delve deeper into the thought processes of the prisoners, though, and consider some counterfactual situations, a different picture arises. First, suppose that Marie actually saw 19 or 20 trees out her window. Then, on Day 1, Marie could confidently say, “We see 20 trees between us,” because she see more than 18 trees herself. Therefore, back in the real world, after neither prisoner says anything on Day 1, and the prisoners therefore remain in their cells, Louis knows that Marie sees at most 18 trees. You might naturally raise the following objection here: “Of course Louis knows that Marie sees at most 18 trees. He didn’t have to wait until after Day 1 to know this. He already knew this immediately after the warden’s speech, when he knew that Marie sees either 10 or 12 trees!”
But the important point here is not just that Louis knows that Marie sees at most 18 trees, but that this fact is now common knowledge, since it follows immediately from the information given by the warden and by the fact that nobody said anything on Day 1, both of which are themselves common knowledge.
Furthermore, just for the sake of completeness, and at the risk of getting lost in the weeds, let us argue that the fact that Marie sees at most 18 trees was not common knowledge before 5 pm on Day 1. Indeed, Louis knew then that Marie sees 10 or 12 trees. Put Marie does not know that Louis knows this. This is because, as far as Marie knows, Louis could see 6 trees, in which case Louis would know that Marie sees either 12 or 14 trees. Therefore, Marie can only know that Louis knows that Marie sees either 10, 12, or 14 trees. But, in turn, Louis cannot know that Marie knows that, since, as far as Louis knows, Marie could see 10 trees, in which case Marie would only know that Louis knows that Marie sees either 8, 10, or 12 trees. It follows that Louis only knows that Marie knows that Louis knows that Marie sees either 8, 10, 12, or 14 trees. And we can continue in this way. The higher order the knowledge becomes, the more uncertainty is introduced into the range, until we reach the statement: Marie knows that Louis knows that Marie knows that Louis knows that Marie knows that Louis knows that Marie knows that Louis knows that Marie sees 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16, 18, or 20 trees. Therefore, before 5 pm on Day 1, the knowledge that Marie sees at most 18 trees is not even ninth order knowledge!
I’m sure that was crystal clear. So let’s continue. We’ve established that, after Day 1, it is common knowledge that Marie sees at most 18 trees. Suppose now that it happened to be the case that Louis saw fewer than 2 trees. Then this fact, combined with the knowledge that Marie sees at most 18 trees, would lead Louis to conclude that the prisoners see fewer than 20 trees between them, so they must see exactly 18. In the real world, when Day 2 goes by and the prisoners are still in their cells, it therefore becomes common knowledge that Louis sees at least 2 trees. Again, this was not common knowledge before 5 pm on Day 2.
It should now be clear how to continue. After Day 3 goes by with no change, it becomes common knowledge that Marie sees at most 16 trees. Then, after Day 4, it becomes common knowledge that Louis sees at least 4 trees. After Day 5, Marie sees at most 14 trees. After Day 6, Louis sees at least 6 trees. After Day 7, Marie sees at most 12 trees.
So far, none of this common knowledge is enough for either prisoner to deduce the total number of trees. In fact, neither of the prisoners has learned anything new about the number of trees seen by the other. However, their higher order knowledge has steadily grown. Indeed, the increasing ranges we saw creeping in to the prisoners’ higher order knowledge on Day 1 have gradually been winnowed by the passage of time. And this pays off after Day 8, when it becomes common knowledge that Louis sees at least 8 trees. Marie then carefully recounts the trees outside her window, confirms that it is 12, and concludes that, together, they see at least (and therefore exactly) 20 trees. She gives the correct answer on Day 9, and the prisoners are released!
There’s another famous puzzle involving common knowledge, initially even more baffling than this one. It is known as the blue-eyed islanders puzzle. It has been written about extensively elsewhere, so let me just point you to one such place, namely, Terence Tao’s blog.
For more reading on common knowledge, see this entry at the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
Cover Image: Spock performing a Vulcan mind meld, thereby establishing common knowledge with Dr. Simon Van Gelder.
Point at Infinity 