Question 5
‘Our knowledge is only a collection of scraps and fragments that we put together into a pleasing design, and often the discovery of one new fragment would cause us to alter utterly the whole design’ (Morris Bishop). To what extent is this true in history and one other area of knowledge?
Words – 1551
Through the progression of time and our life experiences, we tend to make assumptions about certain knowledge issues. We build these foundations of knowledge sometimes viewing things or events in the way that we see them or would ‘like’ to see them. However, when we gather new information, and technology allows us to explore new truths, our whole view of the matter may change dramatically. People, governments and countries have been highly pro active in their decision making in many fields throughout the centuries because of their constant need to improve society. Whether it is an example of the Israeli/Palestinian Middle East crisis in 2003, or natural examples of the evolution of medicines and the treatment of diseases, views of knowledge differ and change and what historically was mistaken as truth can turn out to be wrong. This essay will be discussing how in the areas of History and natural science, knowledge is often based on only a small amount of truth and as more discoveries are made over time, a very different image of the truth may be revealed.
An interesting example of how information can lead to assumptions is the US involvement in Iraq, as a result of the September 11 attacks. In 2003, the United States of America along with their coalition forces invaded Iraq in order to seize power because of what they perceived as the aggressive intensions of Iraq’s leader ‘Saddam Hussein’. The coalition made an assumption that Iraq possessed Weapons of Mass destruction. “The coalition’s mission was ‘to disarm Iraq of weapons of mass destruction, to end Saddam Hussein 's support for
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