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DefiningClaims/thinkingKnowledge questionsExamplesCounterclaims – consideration of other perspectives“The quality of knowledge produced by an academic discipline is directly proportional to the duration of historical development of that discipline.” Explore this claim with reference to two disciplines.Since the advent of formal academia, humans have studied a variety of disciplines in pursuit of knowledge. The historical development of a discipline refers to how long we have explored knowledge within it. Some disciplines like art, ethics and astronomy have been studied for centuries, while other disciplines like neuroscience, chemistry, and genetics are relatively new. The title suggests that knowledge produced within a discipline, like a bottle of wine or barrel of whisky, improves in quality with time. This claim raises important questions such as: Does the meaning of quality, in reference to knowledge, differ from discipline to discipline? If so how? What other variables affect the quality of knowledge produced within a discipline? In order to explore the relationship between time spent studying a discipline and the knowledge produced, I will consider one of the oldest areas of study, ethics, and one of the newest, chemistry.The term quality refers to something’s excellence, specifically when compared against other things of similar nature. In the context of this title, that “something” is knowledge. However, what makes some knowledge more excellent than other knowledge? The application of the word quality changes with each discipline. Since ethics seeks out what morality is, quality ethical knowledge would be the knowledge that leads to the moral action. In chemistry quality can be based on how accurate knowledge is. Does knowledge in ethics lead to more moral decisions with time? Does knowledge in chemistry becomes more accurate with time? In ancient times, Athens was the hub of academia and fostered much of the ethical knowledge we know and use today. Many of the world’s most famous philosophers, like Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, and many others, pondered questions of human morality there as early as 500 BC. Since then the study of ethics has expanded all over the globe. According to the title claim, as ethics has been studied, knowledge produced should be of higher quality. The question becomes, has the development of knowledge more equipped us now than we were in the past to make moral decisions? In order to answer this question, it is useful to examine a current ethical situation: the treatment of women. The “Me Too Movement” that has developed in light of the increasing numbers of sexual scandals involving powerful men and young women has raised questions of the ethical treatment of women, an issue humans have dealt with since the beginning of time. The longevity of this ethical situation will be useful in assessing the effects of historical development on quality of ethical knowledge. Has our knowledge today better equipped us to address this situation than in the past? To some extent it seems that it has. Over time, we have increasingly treated women in a more moral manner. In ancient times, women had essentially no rights and were not treated well, but moving forward, women began to accumulate rights and receive better treatment. For example, the feminist movement in the early 1900s finally granted women the right to vote. More recently, women have gained the right to drive in Saudi Arabia, a country with a reputation for poor treatment of women. However, the Me Too movement has revealed that moral excellence has yet to be achieved despite historical development of ethics. Overall, it seems as if as ethics has developed, so has the moral treatment of women, suggesting that the quality of ethical knowledge is proportional to the historical development. However, obviously there are also cases in which we act less morally than we have in the past. For example, the growing number of mass shootings in the past decades. This suggests that maybe the quality of ethical knowledge - our capacity to make moral decisions - may be dependent on something else. Are there other factors that affect the quality of ethical knowledge? While ethics seeks to answer the seemingly simple question of what is moral, the very idea of what is moral is subjective to each person. I have assessed the effects of historical development on making the moral decision from my personal knowledge. I think that the current trend in the treatment of women is more moral than in the past. However, someone with a different set of values and beliefs might interpret it differently. Because of the subjectivity of morality, some ethical knowledge could be of the highest quality to one person, and the lowest to another regardless of when the knowledge was produced. Even if a person practices moral absolutism, their moral facts are bound to be different from those of another moral absolutist. For example, one person could believe that violence against any being is always wrong, while another believes that only violence against another human is wrong. Because of this, it seems that the quality of knowledge in ethics can also be contingent on the values of who is assessing the knowledge, as well as the duration of historical development. The formal academic study of chemistry is considered to have begun around 1756 with Antoine Lavoisier’s discovery of the law of conservation of mass, formally differentiating chemistry from alchemy. Since then, chemistry has become one of the most studied disciplines of the natural sciences with hundreds of thousands of people around the world devoting their lives to investigating matter and its properties. Since the goal of chemistry is to understand the fundamental behavior of matter in terms of its properties and behavior, quality knowledge in chemistry is characterized by accuracy. With this definition of quality for chemistry in place, the claim that the quality of knowledge produced within a discipline is proportional to the historical development of the discipline seems to hold true. Rarely do we see knowledge produced in chemistry become less accurate with time. More commonly, new knowledge is a refinement of previously produced knowledge based on new discoveries. An example of this is the progression of the periodic table from the 19th century to present day. The first periodic table in 1864 identified only 28 elements. The next version came with 66 elements and identified the atomic weights of each element. While this model certainly was not complete, it was step closer to the truth and thus of higher quality. This process of discovery and refinement produced the periodic table we use today with 118 elements and numerous measures for each. Each newer model of the periodic table is considered to be of higher quality than the last because each model more accurately portrayed the elements and their properties. These new models track the historical development of chemistry and shows that quality is proportional to historical development. But why?What aspects of historical development in chemistry contribute to higher quality knowledge? One obvious answer to this knowledge question is improvements in technology. In 1940, Philip H. Abelson and Edwin McMillan discovered neptunium using a particle accelerator. This discovery prompted a new version of the periodic table to be crafted with the new element. Many subsequent versions of the periodic table have also been the product of better technology. However, another possible explanation of the relation between quality and historical development could be the steady increase with which we study. When chemistry was first introduced as a discipline, its study was relatively localized to a few scientists in Western Europe, many of whom were studying a variety of disciplines. However, with the historical development of chemistry and the natural sciences as a whole has come massive increase in the devotion to discovering new knowledge and the specialization of scientists to specific disciplines. Thousands of scientists are at work around the world making discoveries, it is no wonder the quality of knowledge has increased. These scientists are able to compare and check results, leading to accuracy that could not be achieved in previous years. Technology and intensity of study are two factors of historical development that lead to higher quality knowledge. Both of these factors have been increasing and do not show signs of stopping. In the future, it is likely that these factors along with other aspects of historical development will produce more accurate knowledge in chemistry. The seeming unending refinement of knowledge over time makes me wonder what knowledge we accept now that will be replaced in the future, and if there will ever come a point where our knowledge is one hundred percent accurate, with no more refinements to be made. In conclusion, it seems in some academic disciplines, quality of knowledge produced is proportional to the historical development. In chemistry, newer knowledge is predominantly more accurate than past information, as exemplified by periodic tables throughout history. However, in ethics, quality of knowledge seems to be dependent on both historical development and other factors such as the subjectivity of morality. There are cases such as the treatment of women that exemplify historical development leading to more moral decisions. However the knowledge that produces the more moral action is subjective to each person. While someone may judge a newer piece of ethical knowledge to be of higher quality than an older one, this is not a product of historical development but rather personal ideas of what is moral. The effect of historical development on the knowledge within a discipline cannot be pinned down in one sentence. It is a complex process that not only can change quality of knowledge but also the nature of knowledge and the means by which it is produced. Historical development never stops, meaning that the knowledge we produce in the future is likely to be vastly different and possibly of higher quality than our knowledge now.Works Cited“Development of the Periodic Table.” Science Learning Hub, 21 Oct. 2009, .nz/resources/1804-development-of-the-periodic-table.“Neptunium - Element Information, Properties and Uses | Periodic Table.” Royal Society of Chemistry - Advancing Excellence in the Chemical Sciences, periodic-table/element/93/neptunium. ................
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