One may firstly ask what knowledge is, according to the Longman Dictionary of
Contemporary English, knowledge is basically defined as the information, skills, and understanding that one has gained through learning or experience. So this knowledge is simply produced or earned by an individual or more than one person so in other words knowledge is a product of an individual or group of people. This knowledge can be gained or acquired in various ways, it can be through use of one’s senses and this kind of knowledge is referred to as personal knowledge. Knowledge can also be gained from information shared by other people which is shared knowledge. Personal knowledge is simply “what I know” while shared knowledge is “what we know”. The
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Taking mathematics as an example, which is a study of quantity, space, shapes, and change and it is concerned with reason not one’s point of view. Meaning mathematical solutions can either be right or wrong. Mathematical knowledge is shared through words and mathematical notations. There are certain theorems practised or used in mathematics that were first personal knowledge and they went through several procedures or had to be observed severally in order for them to be considered valid for being introduced or being used and practised worldwide. For example the Pythagoras theorem which was named after a Greek mathematician Pythagoras which states that the square of the hypotenuse (the side opposite the right angle) of a right angled triangle is equal to the sum of the square of the other two sides. Which is represented as a2 + b2 = c2 taking c to be the hypotenuse and a and b being the lengths of other two sides.
This theorem had to go through observation in order to be appreciated or approved. There are also proves that show how valid it is for instance, in the book Pythagorean proposition by Elisha there are about 367 proofs of the Pythagorean Theorem. This is then
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But question is, is shared knowledge through history reliable? The personal knowledge of the historian is compiled in order for it to be compared with other historical facts or facts of the past. Once it is compared it is then shared in a form of written works or orally. This means that this information then becomes inaccurate because of being wrongly interpreted due to ones emotions. Therefore information or shared knowledge through history therefore bias. Instead of shaping personal knowledge one may say it distorts or causes confusion on what was already known or regarded as personal knowledge. For example when one learns about historical facts of his or her own country due to inaccurate information given by historians which is not entirely true causes some confusion due to what was already known and what is delivered by historians.
Moreover, a person’s own emotions can affect their perception of events in
History. For example, while I was reading a history book about the apartheid where black people were ill-treated or discriminated. As I was reading I became very aggravated in a noticeable way because of what was written about that incident.
The study of past events have been a common practice of mankind since the verbal telling of stories by our ancestors. William Cronon, in his article “Why the Past Matters,” asserts that the remembrance of the past “keeps us in place.” Our individual memories and experiences shape how we act in our daily lives. In addition to influencing us at an individual level, our collective history binds us together as a society. Without knowing where we have been or what we have experienced, it is nearly impossible to judge progress or know which courses of action to pursue. The goal of the historian is to analyze and explain past events, of which they rarely have firsthand memory of, and apply the gained knowledge to make connections with current and future events.
evidentiary fact in science, just like all other facts of biology, physics, chemistry, etc. It
First, the historian must refer to primary sources, must describe how he selected his sources and how they are useful, and must quote, refer to, or interpret sources responsibly (representing their context, content, and importance as accurately and fairly as possible) and precisely (using them to clearly support his specific arguments, not haphazardly or too generally). This satisfies the reader by relating (at least one version) of what really happened, and showing how the author justifies his analysis in light of historical fact.
– At present, how good are we in knowing and understanding our country's history? What is
Scholars does not carry rumor or gossip, they verify the information or findings they get from the interview, analyze them, and place them in an accurate historical context also concerned with storage of their findings for use by later scholars. Oral historical depends on human memory and the spoken word. The means of collection can vary from taking notes by hand, elaborate electronic auditory and video
Knowledge can be said to be information that the brain has received that meets a
Pythagoras’s theorem proves that a2 + b2 = c2 but his theorem is only applicable for right-angled triangles. Although isosceles are capable of being right-angle triangles because two of the sides are equal length the formula does not work.
Everyone today is evolved in today’s history, and will pass down the many stories that shape the world for incoming generations. Moreover, everyone has a different perspective on events that happen in the past and present, which creates differing stories and overlapping similarities. Our history is gathered from historians who provide facts and stories of relevant or important characters, issues, or events through details that differ from groups and cultures portrayed during that time. This can be seen in Herodotus’s The Histories (Book Seven). Although Herodotus is the first historian, his takes relevant and important information in an overly-detailed and story-like style of telling history.
Before we consider such significance, I feel it’s important to confirm a mutual understanding of the theorems and its foundation. Considered to be one of the greatest philosophical mathematicians of a generation David Hilbert published his pursuit of an ideology for a systematic basis for arithmetic; ‘turning every mathematical proposition into a formula…thus recasting mathematical definitions and inferences in such a way that they are unshakeable and...
Macmillan’s Dangerous Games: The Uses and Abuses of History has a different perspective but keeps the same ideas. Dangerous Games: The Uses and Abuses of History discusses how history is something we all do and that we look to our past to understand our future. The author discusses that if you do not know the history of another people you will not understand the culture, hopes and dreams of that people. With the correct information of a people’s history can help with avoiding false generalizations and
Knowledge is gained through a myriad of personal experiences through a variety of ways that shapes a person’s understanding. The knowledge we obtain is the culmination of our experiences as we learn what our brain interprets from our senses. Knowledge is the transmission of information that shapes a person’s understanding on a particular topic using a way of knowing. The language used by others to formulate our own ideas and thoughts produce knowledge. The knowledge obtained can either be objective and subjective. The two areas of knowledge, history and arts, are both typically at fault for being inaccurate or bias. The role of history is to study, interpret and analyse the events of the past and relay these findings through language. Language communicates thoughts and ideas through a verbal or written broadcast, thus allowing knowledge to be conveyed. The arts are a broad area of knowledge that communicate knowledge through the manipulation of our sense perceptions that allow us to experience sensations through any of our five senses. The inaccuracies and biases of these areas of knowledge and ways of knowing is due to the pre-set beliefs and values that affect how an artist or a historian chooses to express a particular message to others. Each historian belongs to a school of historiography that holds the belief that an event was due to a specific set of factors and the language used supports this claim. Similarly, artists utilize our sense perceptions to convey a message through a painting. Arts are a broad area of knowledge to i...
History is not the past, history is constantly being updated and depends on the extent of the perspective from which it is studied. Try to imagine what it would be like to live in a society where there was absolutely no knowledge of the past. Everything that is written is based on past evidence. Differences in historical interpretations can also be influenced by contextual changes over time. It can be argued that we are able to look back on events and re-evaluate them objectively. As Reuben Abel stated,"History is far from being exclusively scientific or factual; it is also in large part creative...The historian, like the novelist, tells a story..." (174). Each historian assembles concrete sets of evidence, such as primary sources written by relevant people of the time. Each historian assembles a theory linking documents together with the events that are supposed to have occurred. I have seen first hand generations and their differences influen...
In conclusion, the far-reaching consequences of the ways in which so many of us have been taught history are the trust in the contain of textbooks. Students trusted textbooks for so many years, now we realize that all the stories were just a selection of what certain people wanted us to learn. Another consequence is the trust on our teachers who we believe had reviewed the materials to teach us, however, they did not mention to us the way the contain of our textbooks were selected by group of persons who decided what we should
Socrates once said “To know, is to know that you know nothing. That is the meaning of true knowledge.”(Citation ) The study of knowledge is something philosophers have been conducting from the creation of philosophy. In fact knowledge is one of the perennial topics of philosophy, just as nature of matter in the physical sciences. The discipline of knowledge is known as epistemology(Greek meaning of knowledge and reason). Epistemology is literally defined as means to reason about knowledge, to think about knowledge and to examine knowledge so that we may better ourselves. Philosophers who study knowledge attempt to study what makes up knowledge, the kinds of things one can know, what the limits of knowledge and above all, the age long question
When I think about knowledge the first thing that comes to my mind is education. I believe that knowledge comes to people by their experiences in life. In other words, life is an instrument that leads me to gain knowledge. Many people consider that old people are wise because they have learned from good and bad experiences throughout their lives. Education requires work, dedication and faith to gain knowledge. We acquired knowledge through the guidance of from parents, role models, college/University teachers and life experiences.