In this essay, the extent that the discovery/ development of new knowledge in the fields of the natural sciences and history causes the discarding of older and previously held knowledge will be explored. It is important to understand that the definition of knowledge is justified, true, belief. The central knowledge issue that arises from this exploration, is that the discovery/ development of new knowledge cause things that were previously held as knowledge to be discarded. This knowledge issue will be explored across the natural sciences and history. Throughout this essay, I will attempt to show that which is accepted as knowledge today, is sometimes discarded in regards to the natural sciences and history as areas of knowledge.
In the field of the natural sciences, scientists discard that which was considered knowledge previously on a regular basis due to the consistent development of new knowledge. It is the job of a scientist to not hold anything to be completely true without justifying the proposition for themselves. If a contradictory proposition is found to be true through justification by the scientific method of experimentation, the scientist conducting the research will accept the new proposition as knowledge and discard that which was previously held as knowledge. Through the scientific method, no proposition can be accepted as true by the scientific community until it has been confirmed on several occasions by several contrasting sources. The scientific method is an exemplary use of true reason as a way of knowing to accumulate knowledge. After a theory has been justified, only then can it become fact. Scientific law models the knower’s pursuit of knowledge on several levels because for a theorem to become law, it...
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...ew historical evidence by means of a personal official account, or by means of scientific experimentation, new knowledge can be discovered that can reduce something that was previously accepted as knowledge to a mere proposition that was proven untrue.
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“That which is accepted as knowledge today is sometimes discarded tomorrow.” Consider knowledge issues raised by this statement in two areas of knowledge.
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