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History of science and tech
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the knowledge that we have today is a building that stands on the findings of those who came befor us. every fact that we learned is used as a brick to build new facts on it and that is how the knowledge progresses and grows. however sometimes the inhereted knowledge affects the way we think and act and prevents us from exploring the unknown. some might argue that we always seek new knowledge and new ways of thinking and acting , but most of the time , the fear of the unknown and the comfort that we feal with old ways stops us from what we need.
Galilieo story is a great example of people fearing the new ideas.Galilieo had all the evidence that the earth goes around the sun and not the opposite. he fought hard to convince people of his theory
“…people need not fear the unknown if they are capable of achieving what they need and want" (79). Both protagonist learned about the dangers of fear through the tribulations of their journey. Although life may constantly though curveballs our way, it is important to learn how to take risks. One must to have the audacity to continue on. Odysseus, a courageous Greek hero, would not have made it very far if he was apprehensive of taking risks. Instead, he sought
it is seen that knowledge can hurt. It is also shown that sometimes one can know
In papal Rome in the early 16th century the “Good Book” was the reference book for all scientists. If a theory was supported in its holy pages, or at the very least not contradicted, then the idea had a chance of find acceptance outside the laboratory. Likewise, no theory no matter how well documented could be viewed with anything but disdain if it contradicted with the written word of, or the Church’s official interpretation of scripture. For these reasons the Church suppressed helio-centric thinking to the point of making it a hiss and a byword. However, this did not keep brave men from exploring scientific reason outside the canonical doctrine of the papal throne, sometimes at the risk of losing their own lives. While the Vatican was able to control the universities and even most of the professors, it could not control the mind of one man known to the modern world as Galileo Galilei. Despite a wide array of enemies, Galileo embarked on a quest, it seems almost from the beginning of his academic career, to defend the Copernican idea of a helio-centric universe by challenging the authority of the church in matters of science. Galileo‘s willingness to stand up for what he held to be right in the face of opposition from Bible-driven science advocates set him apart as one of the key players in the movement to separate Church authority from scientific discovery, and consequently paved the way for future scientific achievement.
Our knowledge is a key to our success and happiness in our life to give us personal satisfaction. Knowledge is power but not always. Sometimes our self-awareness and growth as an individual gives us negative thoughts that make us want to go back to undo it. Everyone wants to unlearn a part in our life that brought us pain and problems. Good or bad experiences brought by true wisdom can be used for our self-acceptance, self-fulfillment and these experiences would make us stronger as we walk to the road of our so called “life”, but Douglas’s and my experience about knowledge confirmed his belief that “Knowledge is a curse”. Both of us felt frustrated and sad from learning knowledge.
So to say, knowledge can either make or break a person. It can act as a benefit, for power, or loss, for ignorance. “Do not take for granted what you know. Ask yourself how you know what you know; ask yourself whom it benefits, whom it hurts and why.” (Blackboard: Knowledge is Power)
People believe that they are “wise” when they “know” something. A common member of society most often feels that knowledge enables people to feel powerful and misknowledge shows a certain weakness. Thurman explained, “Being right means that the world affirms us in what we think we know. ‘Knowing’ something is a way of controlling it, being able to put it in its proper place in relation to us so that we can use it effectively… So, knowledge is power, in the sense that it empowers us to act successfully. Misknowledge… is weakness, in the sense that our action may fail in their aim, backfire, or have unintended consequences. Knowledge is security, in that we know our vulnerabilities and can avoid harm. Misknowledge is danger, in that we don 't know what others might do to us or what traps may await us. We therefore feel powerful and secure when were right, weak and vulnerable when were wrong” (Thurman 446). Thurman took a distinctive approach and taught that not knowing meant obtaining freedom and achieving wisdom. Thurman taught, “… the Buddha discovered that this most certain knowledge of the ‘self’ is actually ‘misknowledge’—a fundamental misunderstanding, a delusion. And what 's more, he realized that this discovery was the key to liberation, the gateway to enlightenment” (Thurman 447). From a social standpoint, “wisdom” allows people to obtain a certain knowledge of themselves and in this way, acquire freedom. Once this “wisdom” is gained, one becomes selfless and allows him or her self to be a greater part of
The pursuit of knowledge can lead to a humans destruction and awareness. The pursuit of
Galileo Galilei was an Italian philosopher born in 1564. As an adult, he didn’t believe the universal geocentric theory of the planets and heavens which was established by the Catholic Church. The church taught that the Earth was the center of the universe and everything revolved around our planet. Another theory that the Church supported was that the Earth stood still while the sun rose and set every day. Society in the 1500’s believed that the Pope spoke for God through a divine connection and to against the church was to go against God. To speak out against the church in this time was strictly taboo. If one was to speak against the church was considered to be heresy, which is exactly what happened to Galileo. Galileo invented the telescope and began studying the heavens above and noticed that changes within the stars and planets. He noticed that the “stars” that surrounded Jupiter moved. He came to the conclusion through rational thinking, that the Copernicus’ heliocentric theory was correct. Copernicus was a scientist and philosopher whose theory proposed that the sun was stationary and the heavens orbit around the sun. Galileo tried to convince the church not to aboli...
thinking comes from that and then in the long run more knowledge comes. It is a continuous cycle that never stops.
To sum up, in our community of learners the knowledge that we have today consists of facts that are universally acknowledged and considered to be truth. The word fact that from Latin means something that is doe, when organized systematically forms knowledge, however it changes over time. Difference between facts can be seen in different areas of knowledge for example in history and natural sciences, where language and reasoning are used as tools of attaining knowledge. While language can be used as a manipulator of knowledge by taking advantage of it being the main source of attaining knowledge, reasoning is a logical justification of facts. Both of them can be changed as for in case of language another powerful authority may capture the power and in case of reasoning new type of facts or statements can be present that will lead to shifting the knowledge.
Our first understanding of knowledge is in our childhood when we rely solely on our perception of what we believe to be true, to be actual. Perception is our first natural process of taking in information before we evaluate its justifiedness in our belief or nonbelief of its actuality. The commonly accepted definition of knowledge as, justified true belief, is based on the sources of knowledge. The importance of such sources of knowledge are heavily reliant on the role that memory itself plays in the meaning, scope and reliability of what we call justified true belief.
Everyday, we communicate, express emotions, think, memorise and use our imagination in so many different situations and ways that, we never stop to think about them. This shows us that we have mostly, gone through our lives, without knowing any of these experiences, that one goes through everyday, without ever acknowledging or fully questioning, how we know what we know.It can be considered that, without any regard to where you live on the planet, we gain our knowledge as human beings in very similar ways (“Dombrowski 9”). However, do all these similar ways of knowing somehow hold a significance in
We gain knowledge in through our ways of knowing which are mainly perception, reason and language. We use them to find knowledge because we justify our claims and beliefs by their use, thus, our evidences, because they get us closer to the truth. To accept something as knowledge, it must be considered true, one must believe it and there must be justification why the person knows it, therefore these ways of knowing aid in the process for our quest for knowledge. In conclusion, in order to obtain knowledge all of these three attributes have to be integrated in some type of way, and due to the changing nature of all three of them, knowledge is always changing and it is dynamic, leading to the fact that knowledge can be discarded. The questions b...
We as humans have developed a form of society in which everyone has a purpose and a job they must do. In some circumstances, we are unhappy with the path we have chosen or are given. We all wish to make a change, yet we never seem to stand up to our leaders and change this; we follow the cultural norms even if we don’t like or understand them. The basis of this idea is out of fear of the unknown. People tend to be afraid of that which they have not experienced; an oxymoronic device negating our obligation to discover and innovate.
Much to the dismay of the Church, two astronomers Galileo and Kepler had the audacity to challenge the authorities by suggesting that the sun-not the earth-was at the center of the universe. The church had a stronghold on the way the spiritual and physical world worked, so these discoveries only added to the Church’s resistance to their aims. Their discoveries came only after Kepler and Galileo began to question ancient theories about how the world functioned. These ancient truths were widely held but were inconsistent with the new observations that they had made. Kepler had discovered the laws of planetary motion which suggested that the planet would move in elliptical orbits, while Galileo followed with his discovery of the principle of inertia. Galileo concluded his finding b...