Essay on Historical Developments in Areas of Knowledge

The debate of whether to judge critical events that happened in the past by standards of their own time has become a heated one with people holding differing views on what the most appropriate approach should be. The case has not been different with the events that transpired in the historical development of Mathematics, the Arts, History, the Natural Sciences, Religious Knowledge, Ethics, and Indigenous Knowledge as key areas of Knowledge (AoS). These areas of knowledge have undergone multiple changes during their development which later came to beg the question of whether they events that preceded these areas should be looked at in the context of the time in which they took place. Though the past played a very predominant role in the future that is today, some things are still better explained by their historical context rather than modern ideologies (Wikibooks, 2017).

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The idea of viewing the past through today's lenses becomes a misdoing, especially when considering an area of study like History. In History, the definition of slavery and the practice, in general, should best be described with respect to the era that it belongs to. It would be wrong to start categorizing people and communities based on their experience with slavery in the past while the practice is not practiced nowadays. Using one's past to define the person that they are now should not be the case as we must appreciate the role that time plays in effecting change making previous ideas totally different from current ones. If, say, a given group of people came from extensive family backgrounds that were nomadic, the notions of the past concerning nomads should not be used as attributes to the person. There may have been reasons then as to why they were the way they are which may not be there today. It, therefore, becomes inappropriate to use the past to define the present (Wikibooks, 2017).

On matters to do with ethics, events that led to the development of moral standings and practices in the past should be clearly differentiated from today's standards. For instance, some communities practiced polygamy in the past because their traditions and culture allowed them to do so. The practices were considered customary but later came to change with time. The same is the case with practicing witchcraft. You cannot term a family as practicing witchcraft just because their ancestors traditionally used to practice it. Times change and people change with it. With progressive time development, those who traditionally used to engage in such practices abandoned them and adopted new ones and it, therefore, wouldn't be appropriate to use their past as their present identity. Reference is to be made in the past but not to be transferred to the future.

The case is no different from Mathematics. Some mathematical relationships and principles, other than the basic ones, fail to define their space in today's world due to the difference in today's setting relative to the past environment. The factors that may have influenced the development of certain principles in the past may have been passed with time as new ones started setting in. For example, there were techniques and approaches that were used in the past to solve some mathematical problems but have since ceased to be used due to the changing patterns and ideologies. It would thus not be in order to use, say, a given current mathematical formulae to solve a problem that only existed in the past as misleading conclusions will be arrived at. It, therefore, remains prudent to handle historical situations using historical approaches.

Natural sciences are also not to be spared when it comes to judging past discoveries and scientific successes using modern terms. In the medical field, disease-causing organisms are known to mutate with time and become more resistant to drugs. This calls for newer and more recent scientific measures to be applied if the fight against disease-causing microorganisms is to be a success. It would be off-track for a doctor to define a new strain of malaria ad use treatment meant for the old strain. The implication is that only past standards can be used more efficiently to solve past issues. There are also some areas which used to experience earthquakes, tremors, and tsunamis in the past but which do not experience them anymore. Referring to those areas as risk zones just because they historically used to exhibit certain geographical and scientific characteristics would be providing misleading and inaccurate information. Maybe back then there were sufficient reasons that used to explain why those areas were frequently experiencing the occurrences but which do not apply today (Wikibooks, 2017).

However, the debate has not come without proponents of the idea of judging the past by present times putting a fight. The proponents claim that some things do not change with time. People are the only ones who change, but most things remain just as they were. They contend that the case should not be any different regarding areas of knowledge as most if not all of them have remained just as they were. Though the events leading to their development may seem to be changing, the argument is that all changes still lead to an end similar to the one that was there previously with little changes if any. The proponents use fields such as Mathematics to address this issue claiming that mathematics never changes and those mathematical operations such as addition and subtraction will always remain to have the same meaning regardless of the day and age in which they are applied (Wikibooks, 2017).

Medical scientists are also for the idea that the present should always be effectively used to define characteristics and address behaviors. They argue that in the medical field, though strains of viruses or bacteria change, the information previously used while dealing with the previous strains is always the one that is used to develop better ways of handling the new strains. It would, therefore, be insufficient to treat the present without referring to the past.

Nonetheless, events remain to be best judged by standards of their times. The fact that times are different and that difference comes with its changes should be appreciated. Most of the things that happened in the past happened due to reasons that were current prior to their happening. The historical developments that took place in the past, more so in the areas of knowledge have helped define the present but cannot be considered as they present. They remain to be in the past due to changes that have since taken place. Such events, therefore, remain best judged by standards of their time as opposed to present ones.

References

Wikibooks (2017) https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/IB_Theory_of_Knowledge