Can Knowledge Be Discarded?

1646 Words7 Pages
‘That which is accepted as knowledge today is sometimes discarded tomorrow.’ Consider knowledge issues raised by this statement in two areas of knowledge. If someone told me today that universe is static, I would laugh about it, however, in 1917 Albert Einstein introduced this theory and it was taken seriously. It has been proved wrong, but should the knowledge considered then, now be discarded? Do new theories always discard the old ones? Do they automatically become useless? We gain knowledge through sense perception, reason, language and emotion. Every one of these determinants can be influenced by personal background, feelings, incomplete methods of reasoning and so on. As definition of knowledge is justified true belief, to accept something as knowledge, i.e. to claim to know it, statement must be considered true (objective), one must believe it (subjective) and there must be justification why the person knows it – way of knowing. Because of the subjectivity and various influential components of previous, we can never know for sure, that what we think is true. Not only we sometimes can discard ‘yesterday’s’ knowledge, but maybe tomorrow the knowledge we know today will be proven wrong as well. For example- one today knows that the highest possible velocity is speed of light. That has been proved by Einstein. However, two years ago even faster velocity was observed. This makes us question, whether what we know is true- if the theory proves to be wrong, it could be discarded. As it can be seen- If one becomes suspicious, obstacles to accept something as knowledge arise- although we may believe we possess objective facts, from a different perspective gained by progress, such facts become re-interpreted in the light of new evidence, discoveries, technology, or societal trends. So, we cannot completely trust our knowledge. This aspect is crucial in history-
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