The Dunning Krusher Theory: Doubt Is The Key To Knowledge

The title makes two assumptions, the first is that confidence in one’s knowledge comes from knowing little. When we know little, the only thing that we could know with great confidence is that we do not know much. The source of confidence could also be from not knowing of other views, interpretations and other knowledge that could contradict our understanding of something. Individuals that are less competent tend to overestimate their knowledge whereas more intelligent people tend to underestimate their knowledge, this is known as the Dunning Kruger effect. This effect is not a matter of ego, but rather a lack of intelligence, depriving individuals of the ability to spot their weaknesses. These researchers conducted an experiment on college

I fully agree. Doubt pushes us to ask questions and look for answers, to further explore new ideas and expand our knowledge. Without doubt, we would foolishly believe everything without questioning it. Sometimes, to be doubtful is to think and to be curious, not to be ignorant. Being uncertain drives us to seek answers. This is particularly true in natural sciences, where experimentation and attempts to verify or reject a hypothesis is the core of the methodology. Doubt is a crucial approach to gain knowledge and is necessary to the procedure. However, the title claims that the more we know, the more doubtful we become. This could be because when we learn more about a certain topic, we discover its alternatives, controversies, various perspectives, and new outcomes. The new knowledge might cause us to question or confirm previous knowledge or raise new questions about areas we do not know much about or did not know existed. However, we might also reduce doubt by gaining knowledge about a particular area. As knowledge increases, doubt might increase but could also

As our knowledge increases in certain subjects, the new knowledge causes our doubt in previously accepted knowledge to increase. A superseded scientific theory “is a scientific theory that was once commonly accepted but that is no longer considered the most complete description of reality by a mainstream scientific consensus, or a theory which has been shown to be false.” One example of a superseded scientific theory was known as the phlogiston theory (1667) which was first identified by Johann Joachim Becher, a German physician, but was officially proposed and created by Georg Ernst Stahl, a German chemist. The theory attempted to explain the “hypothetical principle of fire, of which every combustible substance was in part composed. In this view, the phenomena of burning, now called oxidation, was caused by the liberation of phlogiston, with the dephlogisticated substance left as an ash or residue.” However, a notable French Chemist named Antoine Lavoisier, falsified this theory. “Lavoisier is most noted for his discovery of the role oxygen plays in combustion. He recognized and named oxygen (1778) and hydrogen (1783) and opposed the phlogiston theory.” He renamed the "dephlogisticated air" oxygen when he realized that the oxygen was the part of air that combines with substances as they