Beliefs about our world, and what is valuable definitely play a great role in influencing the pursuit of knowledge. Man does not typically pursue anything that is worthless. However, sometimes we gain knowledge without pursuing it, so in this case belief does not influence us, unless we choose not to believe the new knowledge. Value is a subjective thing, but when someone deems something as valuable, it has some meaning to that someone. If I say that purity is valuable, I say it is valuable because I like things that are unadulterated. The pursuit of knowledge is humanity's constant crusade to come to new great truths that are hopefully valuable. In this essay, I will examine how beliefs about the world, and what is valuable within it, affect the pursuit of knowledge in different areas of knowledge.
In the area of the arts, beliefs about what is valuable influence the pursuit of knowledge greatly. In the visual arts value used to be placed on realism. What was valuable to the artist of the past was to make a piece of art that corresponded exactly to hoe things really looked. For example, Albrecht Duerer was a member of the renaissance, and one of the elements valuable in the renaissance was realism. If one looks at any of Duerer's pieces, it is obvious that realism was important to him. To some of the modern artist bringing about emotion from the viewer is important. When Picasso painted Guernica, it was valuable to him to evoke an emotional response from the viewer.
In language arts, the beliefs of the artist also influence the pursuit of knowledge. Some writers write in order to educate the reader about a subject that is of ethical importance. One that demonstrates this is Uncle Tom's Cabin. In this book, the author shows the reader the evils of slavery, and thereby tries to provoke the reader to change the situation for the slaves. Other authors, like Albert Camus, share their beliefs about the world through a work of fiction, and by doing so they hope to bring forth new knowledge about the world. In "The Wall" by Camus, A man is being held as a prisoner, and is asked to turn in one of his friends. He refuses to divulge any information regarding his friends whereabouts, and tells them that he is in some random place. By chance, the place that he blurted out is where his friend is hiding. The man being held as a prisoner is freed and his friend is shot. Camus' purpose in this is to show the world that we have no control of what will happen in the future. He believed, that this was the way the world was, and hoped his story would bring new knowledge to the readers.
In ethics, beliefs about the world and what is valuable play an important role in the pursuit of knowledge. Ethics build our laws, and laws protect what is valuable. There are laws against taking another life because life is valuable to us. There are laws against stealing because stealing is taking something of value from someone. Then there are laws that are designed to protect our children because they also are valuable to us. Beliefs about what "right" and "wrong" are in the world also influence the pursuit of knowledge in ethics. While life is valuable and ethics tries to protect life, ethics also must be used to decide if it is right to take a life. Ethics must be used to determine if it is right or wrong to take the life of a murderer, or if it is right to take the chance of life away from a blastocyst in order to extend the life of an already living person. People use ethics to pursue knowledge, to find out what is right and what is wrong. In their pursuit of knowledge, their beliefs about the world and what is valuable are visible in what they believe to be right or wrong.
The beliefs about the world and what is valuable greatly influence the pursuit of knowledge in history. The historian has a job, in this job he has an audience to for whom to write. There are five factors that influence the historian in his writing: interest of the audience, the conceptual apparatus, view of the historical segment, the historian's interests, and the audience for whom he writes(Abel 165). The historian must think of all these elements when he writes. How the historian views the world and what he believes to be valuable greatly affect how he writes the history from which most of us will gain knowledge. The conceptual apparatus the historian chooses reflects how he views the world. If the historian is a Communist, the history of everything is the history of some class struggle, from the American Revolution to the Spanish Civil War. The interest of the audience and the historian are what they believe to be valuable. If the audience wants to know about the lives of fifteenth century Spanish royalty, the historian will write about the King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella. However, he will not spend much time writing about other people in Spain at the time, and the audience will not gain the knowledge of how the Spanish peasants and in this way, the pursuit of knowledge is hindered.
Next, the beliefs of people studying the human sciences influence the pursuit of knowledge. In anthropology, the beliefs about why people do certain things influence the pursuit of knowledge. Since anthropologists study ancient civilizations with a barely comprehensible written language if any, many anthropologists make claims that are based on their beliefs of why people do certain things. One instance of this is the case where an anthropologist discovered that there was a very early European civilization that buried their dead. The anthropologists stated that this was evidence that the civilization had religion. But, the anthropologists leaves out the possibility that maybe the civilization buried their dead to get rid of the stench of a rotting corpse. The anthropologist stated this because he believed that a civilization that buried had religion. A case of belief about the world and what is valuable influencing the pursuit of knowledge is the treatment of the mentally ill. In earlier times, people believed that mental illness was caused by the devil. This was a logical reason for the people of the time, but it was left unstudied for ages. Then some psychologist started to study these people, and they found out that there were earthly causes for mental illness. Now that mental illness is worthy of study, many scientist study mental illness, and they have created drugs to treat it.
In the natural sciences, beliefs influence the pursuit of knowledge greatest of all. Beliefs about what is valuable fuel the natural sciences. People believe that health is very valuable, and due to this there is much research devoted to the health sciences. One of the worst diseases in the world is cancer. Cancer kills many people that are valuable to someone, therefore finding a cure to cancer is valuable. Now, a great deal of research goes into finding new ways to treat and cure cancer. In the natural sciences, peoples beliefs are often shook. For years people believed the Earth was the center of the universe because the church said it was. Then, Nicholas Copernicus had the idea that it was the sun at the center. He made calculations and they worked out. Then Galileo noticed this idea and he was ostracized by the church. Eventually, people began to accept this radical idea. And, with the dawn of the space age, it was proven.
In Mathematics, belief about what is valuable influences how math is used to gain new knowledge. If one wants to maximize the amount of fenced in area with minimum money they would use calculus to figure out how much fencing was needed to fence the area in. The problem with math being used this way is that there is not much work done on developing new math because most of math is used to gain knowledge, not to make new mathematical developments.
In conclusion, the beliefs about the world and what is valuable definitely influence the pursuit of knowledge. This is because people only work on what they deem valuable, and are reluctant to accept a new belief that contradicts their beliefs about the world.
Bibliography
Abel, Reuben. Man Is the Measure. New York: The Free Press, 1976.
Kuhn, Thomas S. The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. Chicago: The University
of Chicago Press, 1962.
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