The Concept of Chance Relating to Knowledge and Knowing
How does the concept of chance relate to knowledge and knowing?
When did something happen to you unexpectedly or by chance? A good number of things in everyday life might seem like a coincidence, or a lucky chance, also known as serendipity. Chance affects our everyday thinking. How much safer is it to travel by car than by bike? Should I drink another beer? Should I take a risk?
We might claim we know something if it is very likely or highly probable. For example, in your study of science you might typically ask, what’s the most likely explanation? You might be claiming that a result is wrong because of the fact that it is improbable. So how much is the final verdict affected by chance? Is an extremely improbable outcome a result worth noting?
Before we start this question we must understand what chance is. In a dictionary, chance is defined as the possibility of something happening or not happening. With chance we often also describe events that are unpredictable, in other words, random. We can define something is random by knowing that the chance of a particular event happening is not effected by anything.
Knowing this, what events that have importance in our modern day society have been caused by chance or randomness? Can we claim that chance affects our knowledge?
It is hard to believe that any major scientific event has been effected by randomness since we often consider science as the study that involves the most reason and logic. It might surprise you though that there are several examples of scientific discoveries/inventions that are completely debtors of chance. It is in this occasions that I will explain our knowledge has been affected, as in expanded (?), by a series of lucky coincidences.
One of the greatest examples is anesthesia. The actual story is debated but it approximately follows along the same lines.
In the 1800s Crawford Long, William Morton, Charles Jackson and Horace Wells first experienced the effects of laughing gas on pain.
When did something happen to you unexpectedly or by chance? A good number of things in everyday life might seem like a coincidence, or a lucky chance, also known as serendipity. Chance affects our everyday thinking. How much safer is it to travel by car than by bike? Should I drink another beer? Should I take a risk?
We might claim we know something if it is very likely or highly probable. For example, in your study of science you might typically ask, what’s the most likely explanation? You might be claiming that a result is wrong because of the fact that it is improbable. So how much is the final verdict affected by chance? Is an extremely improbable outcome a result worth noting?
Before we start this question we must understand what chance is. In a dictionary, chance is defined as the possibility of something happening or not happening. With chance we often also describe events that are unpredictable, in other words, random. We can define something is random by knowing that the chance of a particular event happening is not effected by anything.
Knowing this, what events that have importance in our modern day society have been caused by chance or randomness? Can we claim that chance affects our knowledge?
It is hard to believe that any major scientific event has been effected by randomness since we often consider science as the study that involves the most reason and logic. It might surprise you though that there are several examples of scientific discoveries/inventions that are completely debtors of chance. It is in this occasions that I will explain our knowledge has been affected, as in expanded (?), by a series of lucky coincidences.
One of the greatest examples is anesthesia. The actual story is debated but it approximately follows along the same lines.
In the 1800s Crawford Long, William Morton, Charles Jackson and Horace Wells first experienced the effects of laughing gas on pain.