Scientific Experiment Through Passive Observations Or Through Active Experiment

“There are only two ways in which humankind can produce knowledge,: through passive observations or through active experiment.” To what extent do you agree with this statement?

Word count: 1255

Candidate name: Alexander Shum
Candidate number: 0049330018
I fully agree the statement in the question. In my opinion, I believe that the production of knowledge requires both passive observation and active experiment. Both of them are heavily linked together, and are part of a larger process to produce knowledge. This can be seen in theories and work that are produced by various types of areas of knowledge such as science and mathematics.

First of all, let talk about passive observation, this phrase means examining or watching
However, an experiment serves no meaning, unless a conclusion was given, and a conclusion can only be draw by using the ways of knowing reason and imaginations. Reason helps to analyze the results of an experiment, while imagination helps to interpret the data and results in different other perspectives. For example in a scientific experiment to determine the rate of reaction of a chemical reaction, the conclusion can only be draw by using reason to analyze the concentrations of the reactants and the conditions of the surroundings. Then imagination will be require to imagine the situation of the experiment to evaluate what was done wrong, what can be done better and the questions of what if. Again, active experimenting contributes to both discovering and creating new knowledge. The above example of the chemistry experiment is the perfect example of active experimenting discovering knowledge. In addition, an active experiment that determined the most suitable managing style for a restaurant is democratic leadership is producing knowledge. Although active experimenting helps to understand advance knowledge, but the weakness of active experimenting is it requires previous knowledge in order to learn new knowledge. Just like a regular simple scientific experiment, it requires basic scientific knowledge in order to it, otherwise the experimenter won’t even know what is he doing and how to initial the
Passive experiment seems unlikely in my opinion. Experimenting without a purpose or experimenting in a passive state of mind seems odd. An experiment usually involves a goal that aims to be proven or determined, passive experiment doesn’t involve any of these. Put in an analogy, passive experimenting is like a car without a motor, and a motor less car can’t perform the things a car was designed to, it can’t be compare with a car with a motor. On the other hand, active observation is actively trying to observe something; I won’t argue that this doesn’t exist. For example Charles Darwin’s famous theory of evolution is actually entirely based on active observation, as Darwin travel from island to island to purposely distinguish the different between species due to the phenomena of natural selection. However active observation requires previous knowledge in order to do it and the observer is aiming to observe certain phenomena in a specific conditions. Trying to observe some in a specific condition involves of the testing of the environmental condition, which involves of experimenting with the environment. If the environment is not control, then I think the process tends to be more like passive observation. Therefore I think active observations should falls into the category of experimenting. Back in the example of Darwin, I think Darwin first didn’t just go from island to island just to