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“That What Is Accepted as Knowledge Today Is Sometimes Discarded Tomorrow”

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Theory of Knowledge Essay

Question – 4

“That what is accepted as knowledge today is sometimes discarded tomorrow”.
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Consider knowledge issue raised by this statement in two areas of knowledge.

Examination Session: - May 2014
School Code: - 002272
School Name: - Indus International School, Bangalore
Candidate Number: - 002272-0091
Name: - Nidhey A Pan
Word Count: - 1471

“That what is accepted as knowledge today is sometimes discarded tomorrow”. Consider knowledge issue raised by this statement in two areas of knowledge.

As I have studied in an Indian curriculum until grade 10 the knowledge that I had until then for the subject of environmental studies (AOK) was nothing but only about the rising concerns of the environment learn most of the stuff that was given in book to get good marks. But this was all discarded when I joined the IBDP curriculum and took that to study as a standard level subject. What I have learnt now is that this subject not only taught me about the environmental concerns but also about the different aspects of the environment and also to practically applies the concepts that we have learnt. Whatever knowledge I had earlier about the subject of learning by heart the stuff, has now been changed, as it is not learning by heart but apply the concepts that we have learnt and perform practical experiments related to the subject. This is because the way of teaching has changed. The schools now focus on providing more of practical knowledge and application based education.

This leads me to the knowledge issue of “To what extent can existing knowledge be justified for the future?”
This means that we cannot use knowledge at all the times for an unforeseen event or unpredictable changes that may occur in the future.

Could this mean that all the knowledge that we have today will be discarded tomorrow? This is an apt question but as we know that nothing in this world is permanent it has to either be discarded or replaced. Conventionally people accepted whatever it was proved or whatever they believed was the truth as knowledge. But scientists and academicians have now challenged this. Hence the knowledge that they had earlier has been discarded.

These aspects will be further explored in this essay through the application of areas of knowledge such as the human sciences, natural sciences and arts and approached through various ways of knowing like reason, imagination and sense perception.

There are several examples in Human Sciences (AOK) that justify the knowledge issue. This means that if an expert investment banker and is investing in a particular company, with his knowledge concludes that the particular investment is profitable. But his knowledge can be discarded, as there can be any external effect that may affect the share prices of that company which in turn may affect the profits of that person. This can discard the knowledge that is accepted today tomorrow due to unforeseen event.

Moreover in the fields of Natural Sciences (AOK) in Physics, heat was considered to be fluid. This was believed since the 3000 BC during the ancient Egyptian times, with the knowledge that as heat is transferred from hot area to the colder area so it is fluid. The knowledge they had then was that only fluid can change and transfers from one place to another. Count Rumford discarded this knowledge of the people from his theory of cannon, where he proved with a reason (WOK) that with the use of friction it was possible to convert work to heat. He proved that if heat was fluid and when transferred it should change its state and form. But the form was not changed. So heat was not fluid but a form of energy. This is where the knowledge that people had earlier was discarded with reason (WOK).

Furthermore again in the field of Human Sciences (AOK) in the subject of Economics three professors Eugene Fama, Lars Peter Hansen and Robert Shiller who won Nobel Prize for the economics have disproved and discarded with reason (WOK) that what knowledge that people had earlier that was proved by the father of economics Adam Smith. Earlier people had the knowledge of rational investor behavior that one has to be smart and has to observe the market before analyzing and investing in shares. But instead he said that any layman could invest in the shares without any prior knowledge. They have proved with a theory that a person who is blindfolded and is made to throw darts on the dartboard will score almost equal to one who is without the blindfold. This is how the three professors have discarded the knowledge that people had earlier of the stock investment was now discarded by their theory of blindfolded dart game. This means that a person can invest in any business without the knowledge of rational investor behavior using his sense perception (WOK) and fate. Anyone can invest in stocks. So Economists discarded the knowledge that people had.

Contrastingly what the professors proved by their theory the blindfolded person it can be countered saying that if any person using his intuition and his luck will invest in the stock market without any knowledge of the market changes and investment will suffer in future. As a business student, I have been able to establish my own business of a capital services firm. From this experience of mine I have seen that a person’s luck will work only for some days. Be it a week or a month but not everyday. There will be some kind of external or internal effects that might change the stock prices or even the currency exchange rate, which might disturb his profits and his ongoing luck. From my personal experience we cannot always discard knowledge completely as there can be some flaws and some assumptions that might not hold true at all times.

In the country of Japan, traditional Japanese female entertainers - Geishas were trained to entertain the weekend guests. They had to be trained since their childhood where they had to go for intense training. They had to perform Japanese arts (AOK) such as classical music, dance and games. Until 1950’s non-Japanese considered and had the knowledge that geishas were known to be prostitutes. All the prostitutes were known as geishas. Not only non-Japanese had this knowledge but also Japanese officials had confusion regarding this. But in 1872 the new government of Japan passed the law with justification and reason (WOK) saying that Geisha was a more refined way of art (AOK) and should not be soiled by associating with prostitution. So the knowledge that people had earlier of geishas as prostitutes was discarded by the justification of government for geisha as a form of art.

As stated in the knowledge issue we cannot justify the knowledge for the future. As a student of ITGS (Information Technology in a Global Society) I have studied that MS-DOS was used as an operating system for the computers. But when the programmers made they did not justify their knowledge for the future and so MS-DOS is now obsolete and it has been taken over by the windows operating system. Hence this contradicts the knowledge issue the how will the knowledge be justified for the future. Hence we cannot justify knowledge for the future.

Do things that are considered moral today become immoral tomorrow? I think that the perspective of the parents and students have changed over time. Some years back when students did some kind of mistake the teachers canned them and parents did not object or questioned the teacher for the same. But now as the time has passed the parents have started objecting it and have lodged complaints regarding the same. Many psychologists have approved that doing this might affect children’s behavior. It was moral then but has become immoral now so is it that things that were moral earlier have become immoral over a period of some years? The knowledge that people earlier had about morality for canning the student has changed and has been discarded.

Controverting to the knowledge issue of implication of knowledge for an event that may occur in future might not hold true. In Japan, an earthquake prone area people have now built their houses that might not cause death of people during an earthquake. So now people have implied their knowledge for an unforeseen event. Also due to advancement in technology Japan is equipped with the GPS (Global Positioning System) and creep meters which is used for warning of the movement of the Earth’s crust. This is how they can predict an earthquake. In this manner people can imply knowledge for an event that may occur in future. So sue to technological advancements people can now predict the event that might happen in future so any unforeseen event can be predicted.

To conclude we can say that if everything were accepted as knowledge today then there would be no inventions made. We would still be using the VCRs to watch the movies and using the photo rill in the cinemas. But all that have been outdated and has been replaced by new inventions made by the scientists like Blu-Ray players. This proves that we need to think outside the box and challenge the knowledge that people have.

Words: - 1471

Bibliography
BBC News Business. Trio awarded Nobel economics prize. 14 October 2013. 25 October 2013 <http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-24517595>.

istokyear13. ToKnowledge. 26 February 2014 <http://istokyear13.wordpress.com/assessment/essay/essay-4/>.

Quora. “That which is accepted as knowledge today is sometimes discarded tomorrow.” To what extent can this be truthful? 25 October 2013 <http://www.quora.com/Philosophy/“That-which-is-accepted-as-knowledge-today-is-sometimes-discarded-tomorrow-”-To-what-extent-can-this-be-truthful>.

Reddit. “That which is accepted as knowledge today is sometimes discarded tomorrow.”. 26 October 2013 <http://www.reddit.com/r/askphilosophy/comments/1om2ik/that_which_is_accepted_as_knowledge_today_is/>.

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