Doubt is the key to knowledge ( Persian Proverb ). To what extent is this true in two areas of knowledge?

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“Doubt is the key to knowledge” (Persian Proverb). To what extent is this true in two areas of knowledge?

If you would be a real seeker after truth, it is necessary that at least once in your life you doubt, as far as possible, all things.

Since our ascent on earth, we have progressed to an era that can arguably be called the golden age of our species. The advancement of natural sciences has been at the heart of our progress, with the last century bearing witness to incredible discoveries and inventions that have contributed to making our lives better. Today, we know that microbes are responsible for most of the diseases that were once ascribed to the wrath of god, such as plague and cholera; we have forensic science to determine guilt and innocence without the need to resort to testimony and oaths. We would not have reached this age had it not been for our incessant quest for knowledge and an appetite for doubt. Our natural curiosity has made us think in order to find better and newer ideas for every facet of our lives. Had the sword of doubt not penetrated the misconception about the shape of the earth, we would still have believed the earth to be flat. Therefore, doubt is the basis on which one proceeds to acquire knowledge. According to Plato, “Knowledge is justified true belief”, which means, that in order to know that if a given proposition is true, one must not only believe in the relevant true proposition but also have good reasons for doing so. One implication of this would be that no one could gain knowledge by simply accepting a statement to be true. We would need to doubt a claim first, and then proceed further to validate the claim in terms of its credibility and truthfulness via the ways of knowing, such as emotions, reason, perceptions and language. Thus, undoubtedly, “doubt is the key to knowledge.”

There are a number of areas of knowledge - the natural sciences, the human sciences, mathematics, history, virtual arts and ethics – to name a few. I deem the most tangible evidence of doubt and the resultant progression to be best witnessed in the objectivity of the natural sciences. Similarly, ethics is a branch of philosophy, where doubt is the key to knowledge and for which a lot of debate and theories have gone into making sense of reality and truth. Ways of knowing can help us in separating and choosing the right claim and distinguishing between something (claim) that is believed to be true and something (fact) that is actually true.

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Ethics is knowing the difference between what you have a right to do and what is right to do. Ethics is a discipline that deals with questions of morality – what is good and evil or right and wrong. It is one of the most abstracted areas of knowledge; aloof from other areas, instead of evidence what matters most are our opinions and beliefs. Thus, what is moral for one may be immoral for another. Innovation in the field of cloning is an example. Moralists condemn and reprehend the practice of making a clone of anything, as it is tantamount ...

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