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Essay on the scientific method essay
Accepted as knowledge today discarded tomorrow
Explain the scientific method and why it is so important
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There have already been some facts or knowledge that people ones believed in, but suddenly someone has discovered a new fact that may contradict the previous fact everybody thought was right. In this essay I will consider some knowledge issues in two different areas of knowledge which I chose to do natural science and religion. The purpose of this essay is to distinguish between different accepted knowledge and try to investigate why some knowledge is discarded after finding something that contradicts the knowledge. This is my attempt to get closer to the answer. This essay may not be completely correct since the topic is big, but I will try to have my arguments for both parts.
Knowledge is defined as the state or fact of knowing through experience or study (The Free Dictionary). According to the natural science the word scientific knowledge is fact and phenomenon that is acquired through a scientific method. There are four factors that can classify if the information is a scientific knowledge: Independent and rigorous testing, peer review and publication, measurement of actual or potential rate of error, degree of acceptance within the scientific community. Religious people think that knowledge is considered to be one of the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit, knowing what is good or evil. The knowledge they get is obtained from religious books, such as the bible.
Natural science are constantly developing over time, the scientist makes new discoveries which leads to new information that may prove some theories to be wrong or change some of the current information that they already have obtained through the existing information. For examples in the past, people believed that the continents were immovable, but it was proved to be wron...
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...which will occur since people are made to exaggerate and have a bad recollection of what actually happened. Therefore I believe that the new knowledge that comes from people’s beliefs could be exaggerated and the knowledge would drift further away from the truth.
In conclusion so are people considered to be different from each other, they may have the same beliefs and some similarities. The way that some knowledge is accepted today but discarded tomorrow could be true in some cases, but the way I see it is that this is a part of how people starts developing this whole world. When they have theories they base it on some background information, but what if we did not have any other information? Then there would not have been any research of the consisting theories. The knowledge we discover or discard is actually what has made us humans develop into what we are today.
Kuhn’s theory of paradigm shift. Mr. Bawazer offers a strong case. As an example from Mr. Kuhn’s theory we can understand how the different dog breeds evolved from the wolf. Depending on what type of breed you want from a hunting dog to a family dog breed, you can alter the DNA by letting the alpha dog to continue to breed or not. Next, we can realized that everything in this planet contains molecules or genes that can be altered. We also recognize that paradigm science and paradigm shift is a circular state not a steady line. This means that we have to adjust to what is going on the present time and expand from it, but always remember how it was done in the past. Thomas Edison well said “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.” The only way to change science is to continue to try without being afraid of failing. If different engineers and industries unites forces to promote the use of natural resources rather than inventing new ones and also with the help of the government of going “green” will definitely help the environment to prevent
There is no concrete definition of knowledge, but there is a definition that is widely agreed upon, or a standard definition. This definition may be widely accepted, but just like most things in philosophy, it is controversial and many disagree with it. The definition involves three conditions that must be met in order for one to truly say that they know something to be true. If one were to state: “The Seattle Mariners have never won a world series,” using the standard definition would look like this: first, the person believes the statement to be true. Second, the statement is in fact true. Third, the person is justified in believing the statement to be true. The three conditions are belief, truth, and justification. There are the “necessary and sufficient conditions” for knowledge. Necessary and sufficient conditions are linked to conditional statements, ‘if x, then y’ statements.
Further research is conducted to test the theory and the model. As advances in technology occur, more information can be obtained and so the theories and models can then be altered. If the model or theory seems to hold true in numerous areas of science, a scientific law is formed. These laws provide a greater level of understanding and explain why many things happen. An example of a law is Sir Isaac Newton’s law of Inertia.
...cam.ac.uk/ vesalius-great-work Accessed on 4/26/14) This approach is what incited a scientific revolution when it came to how new discoveries were made, and it challenged future generations to find out more about the world around them and correct old theories.
As it has been said previously, knowledge is one of Finnis’ seven basic goods that are intrinsically valuable, and is acquired by means of whatever process one must endure in order to obtain the truth about something. Though the value of knowledge varies subjectively, the objectivity of knowledge is relative and only adds to knowledge being self-evident. The core of what makes knowledge an underived principle encompasses not only the fact that it cannot be further deduced nor attributed to another principle in order to add to its validity, but also that its goodness is an antecedent to all skeptics’ counter-arguments, therefore invalidating any and all skeptical arguments.
The dictionary definition of knowledge is information acquired by a person through experience or education. Knowledge in the 21st century is viewed as a thought that is backed up by facts or evidence, therefore making this idea a very credible one to many. I believe that there is no such thing as knowledge, but rather justified true belief. The facts and the evidence used to amount to so called knowledge are just opinions of very educated people meaning they are falsifiable just like any other opinion. Edmund Gettier backs up this claim with, “it is possible for a person to be justified in a proposition that is in fact false” (109). On the other hand, a justified true belief is one that has plenty of evidence and reasons to believe that it is true, but it is also known that there could very well be evidence against this belief. A good example of justified true belief would be the principle of God. There is no way to know for a fact that the God people learn about and worship exists, for the fact that no one that is alive today has met God. However, as far as the other end of the argument goes there are reasons such as; reproduction, respiratory relationship between plants and humans, the urge to seek love, and many others to believe that God is alive and well today. If these ideas were facts that could be wholeheartedly
Knowledge is something that can change day to day, which can be learned through both the natural and human sciences. Knowledge changes in the natural sciences when an experiment is conducted and more data has been gathered. Knowledge changes in human sciences when patterns are recognized in society and further tests have been conducted. Does our knowledge of things in the natural and human sciences change every day? I think that our knowledge grows everyday but does not necessarily change every day. The areas of knowledge that will be discussed in this essay are natural and human sciences. In History we can see that at one point something that was considered knowledge then transformed into different knowledge, especially in the natural sciences. However, in the past, due to lack of technology, it might have been more of a lack of knowledge that then turned into knowledge on the topic.
In my view, knowledge is relative and can be changed at any given time. What works best one time may not be correct a second time. Before the 1300's, man believed that the sun revolved around the earth; for man, at that time, this knowledge worked best. After the 1300's, humans began to see that, actually, the earth revolved around the sun. This idea wo...
Knowledge is rarely considered permanent, because it is constantly changing and adapting as time passes and new discoveries are made. This title roughly translates into the question: to what extent is knowledge provisional? In other words, to what extent does knowledge exist for the present, possibly to be changed in the future? At first glance, one’s mind would immediately stray to the natural sciences, and how theories are constantly being challenged, disproven, and discarded. Because of this, one might be under the impression that knowledge is always provisional because there is always room for improvement; however, there are some cases in which this is not true. There are plenty of ideas and theories that have withstood the test of time, but on the other end of the spectrum there are many that have not. This essay will evaluate the extent to which knowledge is provisional in the areas of the human sciences and history.
Knowledge has a preliminary definition which is that it is justified true belief. Due to its dynamic nature, knowledge is subject to review and revision over time. Although, we may believe we have objective facts from various perceptions over time, such facts become re-interpreted in light of improved evidence, findings or technology and instigates new knowledge. This raises the questions, To what extent is knowledge provisional? and In what ways does the rise of new evidence give us a good reason to discard our old knowledge? This new knowledge can be gained in any of the different areas of knowledge, by considering the two areas of knowledge; History and Natural Sciences, I will be able to tackle these knowledge issues since they both offer more objective, yet regularly updated knowledge, which is crucial in order to explore this statement. I believe that rather than discarding knowledge we build upon it and in doing so access better knowledge, as well as getting closer to the truth.
When considering the basis for the understanding of both science and religion it is interesting to distinguish that both are based on an overwhelming desire to define a greater knowledge, and comprehension of the universe that surrounds us. Now while, science has based its knowledge of experimental basis, researcher, and scholarly work; religion
What is the main difference between science and other types of knowledge? The answer to this question is simple: methodology. Science is not the usual techno-electronic and green-blue colored liquids that one perceives when hearing the word “science” but it as simple as a method. The method of scientific logic, deduction and logical reasoning is what classifies knowledge into science. All other types are known as non-scientific bodies of knowledge, some types of which are unorganized and unrelated to the natural world.
While faith alone cannot be said to necessitate truth, it is by no means useless as a basis for knowledge in the areas of knowledge of religion and the natural sciences. Faith allows a knower to make the decision of what is knowledge and what is not, even when the knowledge claim cannot be justified by evidence or empirical reasoning. Yet simultaneously, this quality of faith renders it useless in finding absolute truth. In the natural sciences, faith can be seen as both a necessity, as it is essential for the building of knowledge, and yet also it must be challenged, as the advancement of science is through the disproving of current theories.
Ever wonder how the world would be today only if our great researchers implemented a different attitude towards their experiments? It is possible that the results would remain same. However, some argue that the consequences may be altered. Nonetheless, this does not make the earlier learned knowledge valued less or false, just supplementary. Abraham Maslow’s theory challenges nearly all ways of knowing, suggesting that if we limit our thinking, the outcomes remain homogenous, therefore, limiting the amount of knowledge we acquire. Dilemmas are mentioned in order to repudiate from the opinions that are profoundly accepted in the society. If Newton had eaten that apple, instead of using it as a tool to apply the theory of attraction, he may not have exposed gravity. Because he had more tools than a mere hammer and he was sagacious enough to expand his philosophy beyond hunger, he made such an innovation. It is widely claimed that inventions are accidental. In fact, all the chemical elements in the famous periodic table are a result of different tactics towards scientist’s research. As ToK teaches us that there is no possible end to a situation for it is influenced by the perceptive skills of the arguers. There is never a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ or the ‘ultimate answer’ in the conflict, but the eminence of rationalization is what poises the deliberation. This suggestion explains that there is always that one more way to approach the conclusion. Thus, pursuit of knowledge habitually requires dissimilar ways of knowing for it lengthens the verdict.
Beginning with the scientific revolution in the fifteen hundreds, the Western world has become accustomed to accepting knowledge that is backed by the scientific method, a method that has been standardized worldwide for the most accurate results. This method allows people to believe that the results achieved from an experiment conducted using the scientific method have been properly and rigorously tested and must therefore be the closest to truth. This method also allows for replication of any experiment with the same results, which further solidifies the credibility and standing of natural science in the world. Another aspect that allows for the reliability on the natural sciences is the current paradigm boxes, which skew the truth to remove anomalies. This affects the outcome of experiments as the hypotheses will be molded to create results that fit the paradigm box.