Society doesn't have knowledge. Libraries and universities do not have knowledge. Books do not have knowledge. Those are inanimate objects or concepts. They are not living men and women.
The only place knowledge resides in the minds of individual people.
In my view, you are making a category error to subsume your individual understanding, that no one else can access, into some concept called 'society'. There is no hive mind, no borg, no tangible collective consciousness. There are conceptual artefacts we all interact with, and all interpret in similar ways in our individual consciousness. We all know what a 'tree' is for example. These are common linguistic named 'tokens' that we use to interact with others. I say 'tree' and you understand me. But the concept of 'tree' only exists in our minds.
We discuss things in the objective world with others and that use concepts such as 'society' to describe part of that objective world. Our exchange of concepts does not make those concepts real in themselves. They are only real or animated in the mind of an individual - in you or I. They have no life of their own.
To treat 'society' as a real thing - as a sort of ultra-human - is to mistake the map for the terrain. On a map a group of people may be interpreted as a 'collection' or a 'society'. But that is just a concept to navigate the map at a certain resolution. The 'society' concept only resides in the mind of the individual looking at the map - its not actually a real thing. This can be confirmed as other individuals can use a different mental maps to successfully navigate the terrain - eg they may see a collection of individuals as a collection of individuals.
The only place knowledge resides in the minds of individual people.
In my view, you are making a category error to subsume your individual understanding, that no one else can access, into some concept called 'society'. There is no hive mind, no borg, no tangible collective consciousness. There are conceptual artefacts we all interact with, and all interpret in similar ways in our individual consciousness. We all know what a 'tree' is for example. These are common linguistic named 'tokens' that we use to interact with others. I say 'tree' and you understand me. But the concept of 'tree' only exists in our minds.
We discuss things in the objective world with others and that use concepts such as 'society' to describe part of that objective world. Our exchange of concepts does not make those concepts real in themselves. They are only real or animated in the mind of an individual - in you or I. They have no life of their own.
To treat 'society' as a real thing - as a sort of ultra-human - is to mistake the map for the terrain. On a map a group of people may be interpreted as a 'collection' or a 'society'. But that is just a concept to navigate the map at a certain resolution. The 'society' concept only resides in the mind of the individual looking at the map - its not actually a real thing. This can be confirmed as other individuals can use a different mental maps to successfully navigate the terrain - eg they may see a collection of individuals as a collection of individuals.