Doubt Is The Father Of Invention

Galileo Galilei once said, “Doubt is the father of invention”. Thus we can say that, doubt is one of the factors which can influence the expansion of knowledge. For me I believe doubt sometimes tends to call on reason and somehow encourages people to hesitate before acting or belief. Thus we can say that doubt is the key to knowledge where with the feeling of doubt, people feel uncertain on something and try as possible they can in order to falsify and find the certainty.”Nathan Salmon (1995) proposes that a believer has a grasp of a proposition and has attempted consciously to choose between the proposition and its negation.” [2] From these definition we can claim that, by doubt it actually can triggers the feel of unbelief and then, from this , the knowledge of something will be invented when further investigation is conduct. I believe the words ‘key to knowledge’ from the phrase is refer to ability of doubt which can triggers and progress to an understanding on something.

Science subjects either Natural Science or Human Science are the possible area of knowledge which follows a pattern in the growth of knowledge with the presence of uncertainty beyond any suspicion. In Natural Science area, yes, I believe presence of doubt is the key to knowledge. For example, in atomic model theory, Bohr state that electrons in atom move in shells around the nucleus which contains protons. But since he invent it, many scientists feels doubt with the law and try to argue and invent new law by the improvement of scientific revolutionary as they feel uncertain towards Bohr’s result. For example, in Quantum Physical Models of atom, many scientist try to explain the concept in better way like Erwin Schrodinger who are fascinated by this idea and approach the spectral phenomena that Bohr’s failed to explain. [3] James Chadwick also feel something is lack towards the model .He search for unanswered questions related to it. So he found Bohr’s atomic model cannot be apply as new theory that can be proven to work with the newly acquired knowledge. He proved the existence of neutrons, the neutral particles in nucleus. This shows that doubt aids us in the search for new knowledge, as the idea of absolute certainty lead to more questions revolving around it.

It also happened to me. In my real life situation, as an IB student before starting on an experiment, hypothesis or expectation is made up to guess the result based on the existence knowledge that is theoretically proven by the experts. Somehow, at the beginning of the experiment, doubt may be influenced towards the hypothesis whether it does fit the result. Thus because of the doubt, experiment is conducted and it is such a progress towards a knowledge on knowing and proven something. The result that I gained in any experiments also always makes me feel doubt about its validity and certainty. Through the feeling of doubtful, further investigation is carried out. Thus, to reduced uncertainty due to limitations, the experiment is conduct in many times and this lead to new knowledge by finding the truth of outcome by verify a certain hypothesis and reduce the doubt one has about the theory.

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Apart from that, in Human sciences, doubt also can influence as the key to knowledge. Humans will change and Human sciences are based on humans the theories behind human sciences which will have to be changed. For example, urbanization that created by human. “Urbanization is the degree of or increase in urban character or nature. It may refer to a geographical area combining urban and rural parts, or to the transformation of an individual locality from less to more urban” [4] . For example, in real life situation, Port Harcourt, one of Nigeria’s major cities has been experiencing rapid urbanization since 1913 in which engulfing and transforming the way of life of the indigenous enclaves, which predate the founding of the city. Through this process, doubt plays a role as the initiator on the study of urbanization. The study from researchers, concluded that “urbanization has indeed had both positive and negative impacts on the indigenous population and that there was reasonable agreement between subjective and objective impacts of urbanization” [5] . From this it shown that with the presence of doubt, it is such a progress of knowing something on expecting the consequences.

Politics also in human science cause uncertainties. Leaders in most countries consist of the leader or founder of the politic parties. For example, in Thailand, there is a political dispute between two parties. Based on what happened, I think, the leaders of each party have their own aims, issues, propaganda and planning of the direction of the country’s flow. Therefore, that is not necessarily for the direction of the country’s system will remain the same after the political changes during election. Thus, the uncertainties in the direction of country’s administration and future planning will be available when the different leader takes over. These changes occur because of the implementation of political parties to lead the country which cause by doubt. Then, there is legislation that established to observe and control the direction of the progress of state. Doubt that created will be the key to knowledge as to reduce uncertainties.

But somehow, doubt also does not always act as the key to knowledge. Knowledge also can be learnt through various processes. For example, with the presence of curiosity it also can be the key to knowledge. Curiosity is designed for progression or natural law of our being, and whoever retrogrades is acting contrary to his nature such as exploration, investigation, and learning, evident by observation in human. Strong curiosity is the main motivation of many scientists. In fact, in its development as wonder or admiration, it is generally curiosity that makes a human being want to become an expert in a field of knowledge. For example, James Newton and his law of gravitivity, he very felt curious why apple is falling down and not rising upward. Thus with the presence of curiosity of knowing something, through the process of basic scientific method, he observed and investigate, make generalization to create theory about behave of things fall downward. Then, he came out with Newton’s law and the concept of gravity.

Anyhow, without thought of doubtful, true would forever elude us and play important role in our life especially to intervene something. Doubt is, however, something that we can take credit for in order to discover the true in any subjects, for example in Sciences either natural or human sciences. It is a natural human property rather than something we can learn. Genetics provide that so long as our mind is properly functional we will have these functions, although there are some other factors which act as the key to knowledge. From the argument above, we can conclude, somehow doubt is the key to knowledge to our daily life.

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