36 Point Tok Essay - 1908 Words

Theory of Knowledge Essay on prescribed title Word Count: 1587 Date: January 2008 [This essay scored 36/40 : an A grade. MF ] â€Å"History is always on the move, slowly eroding today’s orthodoxy and making space for yesterday’s heresy.† Discuss the extent to which this claim applies to history and at least one other area of knowledge. In order to find out if the claim applies to the areas of knowledge history and chemistry I will break the question down in three parts. Firstly I ask if history and chemistry move. Secondly I question if it erodes today’s orthodoxy and finally I consider if yesterday’s heresy takes over. In my opinion the claim applies to some extent to history and to a great extent to chemistry. Are history†¦show more content†¦Since scientific revolutions are difficult to date, we do not know when they started or ended exactly. Thus, one can assume that it is not possible to determine if the commonly accepted changed. Does yesterday’s heresy take over? History can change when new facts are discovered. More information about a historical event is available and therefore new knowledge. This allows us to describe an event in the past more accurately. An example of the discovery of new facts is the DNA analyzer. This new research method can reveal details about the Neanderthal DNA.[9] The analyzer allows researchers to find out the entire DNA sequence of the closest cousin humans ever had. The ability to reconstruct prehistoric DNA enables scientists to find out what relationship existed between Neanderthals and the first modern humans. â€Å"Such a feat, deemed impossible even a few years ago†[10] This implies that yesterday’s heresy has been replaced by today’s orthodoxy. Nevertheless, there are examples of events where yesterday’s heresy did not take over. The Armenian Genocide is one of them. This change in history is caused by a different focus of interest from the involved parties. The Armenian genocide can be defined as â€Å"the atrocities committed against the Armenian people of the Ottoman Empire during W.W.I .†[11] It is in the interest of the Armenians to display the events that happened between 1915 and 1918 as genocide, because they want