"Present knowledge is wholly dependent on past
knowledge."
Anna Dolidze
, The mathematician and philosopher Alfred North Whitehead said that “[t]he only use of
knowledge of the past is to equip us for the present.” While this might be true, does knowledge
today always rely on yesterday’s knowledge? This essay is based on the validity of the belief that
“present knowledge is wholly dependent on past knowledge and knowledge is recollected
throughout life.”
“Present knowledge'' refers to facts and information that exists and is still part of our combined
knowledge. “Past knowledge” means facts or information that have since been deemed out of
date. A “claim” is something that is believed to be true but is open to be argued about or debated.
“Wholly dependent” means completely reliant on something. Fundamentally, if we rewrite the
belief mentioned before, it means that the facts and information that exist today are completely
reliant on the facts/ information that have since been deemed out of date.
This essay will examine the question with reference to two areas of knowledge: art and religion,
and one way of knowing, which is intuition. Religion is an organized system of beliefs and
practices revolving around, or leading to, a transcendent spiritual experience. Art is the way of
expressing our emotions and perspectives. Intuition is defined as ‘immediate cognition,’ i.e.,
knowledge which is immediately evident without interference or evidence.
In both art and religion, it seems that we need at least some kind of knowledge to develop further
ideas. Nevertheless, there are some instances where we do not really need past knowledge to
produce new knowledge. With this dilemma in mind, this essay will try to answer the following
knowledge question: To what extent does current religious and artistic knowledge rely on earlier
developments in these areas?
knowledge."
Anna Dolidze
, The mathematician and philosopher Alfred North Whitehead said that “[t]he only use of
knowledge of the past is to equip us for the present.” While this might be true, does knowledge
today always rely on yesterday’s knowledge? This essay is based on the validity of the belief that
“present knowledge is wholly dependent on past knowledge and knowledge is recollected
throughout life.”
“Present knowledge'' refers to facts and information that exists and is still part of our combined
knowledge. “Past knowledge” means facts or information that have since been deemed out of
date. A “claim” is something that is believed to be true but is open to be argued about or debated.
“Wholly dependent” means completely reliant on something. Fundamentally, if we rewrite the
belief mentioned before, it means that the facts and information that exist today are completely
reliant on the facts/ information that have since been deemed out of date.
This essay will examine the question with reference to two areas of knowledge: art and religion,
and one way of knowing, which is intuition. Religion is an organized system of beliefs and
practices revolving around, or leading to, a transcendent spiritual experience. Art is the way of
expressing our emotions and perspectives. Intuition is defined as ‘immediate cognition,’ i.e.,
knowledge which is immediately evident without interference or evidence.
In both art and religion, it seems that we need at least some kind of knowledge to develop further
ideas. Nevertheless, there are some instances where we do not really need past knowledge to
produce new knowledge. With this dilemma in mind, this essay will try to answer the following
knowledge question: To what extent does current religious and artistic knowledge rely on earlier
developments in these areas?
