History and Human Sciences

The language in this knowledge claim allows for multiple interpretations. Hence, we will assume that the past refers to both the distant and recent past, and that the phrase “change the future” includes further developing the AoK of human science's ability to predict ways to change the future. To check the validity of the knowledge claim, we will look at both the AoK history and the AoK human sciences in relation to the past and future respectively.

History uses plenty of WoKs, casual connections, and perspectives. Historians record the most important parts of the past in a way that covers the event as accurately as possible, which is very difficult. They are required to observe, understand, and make connections between multiple events and then select and omit certain information because not everything can be included. Therefore, historians rely on various WoKs such as memory, emotion, imagination and language. When the event is recent and there are witnesses available, memory is used. For emotion, a historian must be able to display the message and meaning of the past events to a degree that makes us either sympathize or learn from these past events. This leads us to the next important WoK that deals with communication. Most of the primary sources of historical events come from books, diaries, articles, and other forms of literature which rely heavily on language. Because language also contains many PoKs, some of these sources are unreliable, which limits the pool of knowledge of events that historians can draw from. In these situations, where there are too few records or where gaps appear, a professional historian can use imagination, another WoK, to fill in the gaps with what most likely occurred. After gathering all the inform...

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...prevent personal cultural biases

Considering the counter arguments and the similarities between the AoKs, it is reasonable to say that both AoKs must work together to understand past, and future actions. Their similarities make them compatible Aoks and the differences also act as strengths because a PoK in one AoK can be balanced by the other Aok. For example, history cannot rerun the events of the past to know, for example, the exact date of a disaster. But through geography and analysis of information collected, the important dates can be discovered. After analysis of the claim, it is possible to conclude that there is truth in the title but its implication that the two must contrast is false because the human scientist and the historian can both individually understand the past and change the future and they can have an even greater impact by working together.