Arts are an ever-changing area of knowledge where the ways all ways of knowing are utilized—we perceive what we see with emotions apply our reason and explain with help of language. But still sometimes what an artist expresses in his paintings defeats all tools of knowledge. For instance “Mona Lisa” and “The Last Supper” by Leonardo Da Vinci are still a mystery even after so many explanations given by people. Since art is spontaneous reflection of an individual’s innermost thoughts it is naturally an area of knowledge where trends change as fast as the human thoughts and quite obviously traditions that break away add more to knowledge than the ones that merely follow.
For example, after the World War I a group of revolutionary artists changed the face of art and literature because they felt oppressed by the intellectual rigidity of art, literature and society. Their work represents a total break with existing traditions. It was termed as ‘anti art’ by its founders like Tristan Tzara and Jean Arp and their methodology was to drop small pieces of paper freely on a surface and then paste them where they fell. Nothing could be more revolutionary than this cut and paste technique but it aroused the interest of people and widened the frontiers of knowledge. This technique was later used in Surrealist movement and also gave birth to collage and other popular forms. Music also followed similar techniques and pop music gave up the traditional mould and created music by a haphazard merging of styles. The fact that these trends caught on, were immensely popular, and stimulated human imagination gives ample proof that knowledge depends on trends that break away rather than follow.
As in plastic arts, in literature, too, the horizons of knowledge are ever-widening. George Bernard Shaw seemed to be mirroring the thoughts of all writers when he said, “You see things; and you say, 'Why?' But I dream things that never were; and I say, 'Why not?”. Writers are always in the quest for something new and every era in the history of literature is characterized by something new. When Shakespeare created bold women characters in his plays, he was reprimanded by the censoring authority as well as the Queen but his characters lay the path for the feminist literature that followed centuries later. One of the most revolutionary movements in literature was the Absurdist movement in drama where all existing theatrical traditions were shattered to bits. There were no conventional sets or dialogue. In fact they even did away with the accepted form of drama as their plays had no beginning, middle, or end. Though the language of the plays defied logic yet they were perceived easily by the audience as everyone identified with the emotions expressed. This artistic tradition that broke away from all artistic norms added to common man’s knowledge, about the anger and frustration against the post world war set-up, as no amount of traditional drama could. This was also a fore-runner to the stream of consciousness movement that followed. Writers like Virginia Woolf experimented with a style of writing where the novel is written as direct thoughts of the writer and hence follows no chronology. This in turn gave birth to now known characteristics like free verse, discontinued narrative and even the immensely popular stand-up comedy.
Science is a subject which can be learnt only through reason and language. There are two main areas of science – the human sciences and the natural sciences. In these sciences knowledge is based on absolute facts and inventions. These are opposed by critics then synthesized and reconstructed again. The natural sciences i.e. chemistry, biology and physics all move on this principle of radicalism. All of us have read about the theories given by so many scientists. Knowledge in natural sciences thrives only on theories that are dynamic and break away from all moulds. After a theory is evolved there are people who accept and work on the given theory without trying to evolve or experiment on anything else. On the other hand are the people who question the theory and try to find out whether the theory is viable and if it has scope for improvement. Using the tool of reason they created more and more fields of knowledge.
When Darwin negated the religious theory of divine creation and presented the theory of evolution it must have scandalized many believers. But the fact remains that it was enough to create ripples in the existing spheres of knowledge. The theory was modified by many others who dared to question and human body was constantly explored and defined. This exploration led to the knowledge that genes can be transplanted to improve upon an existing specimen. From grafting of plants to Dolly the sheep and now finally to the highly debatable human cloning—knowledge has crossed many horizons and all thanks to some minds who dared to be different. Today scientists are radical enough to play God and manufacture human beings as per the desired genes. Whatever the ethical issues involved, one can not deny that this research can go a long way in saving species that are on the brink of extinction or help humans with dysfunctional body organs. If we just take the example of cardiac surgery we can see how various radical techniques helped the knowledge to expand and as a result also helped science serve humanity better. The closed heart surgery of the late 1800s limited the surgeon as he had to work blindly but the radical open heart surgery and minimally invasive surgery offered enormous possibilities. Dr Christiaan Barnard had the path breaking idea of transplanting hearts and this possibility gave him passion to seek more knowledge and finally after more than a decade of research he created history by transplanting a human heart and saving a life. It was another “Eureka” moment for science and helped to enhance knowledge in the field of science.
In human sciences all four ways of knowing are used to reach knowledge. Psychologists and psycho-analysts use perception, reason, emotion as well as language to propound and test theories. Sigmund Freud gave the structural model of the human psyche, dividing it into Id, Ego and Superego. He came up with the shocking theory of the pleasure principle, reality principle and Oedipus complex. The latter was explined in terms of two poles—the negative pole which results in hatred for the parent of the same sex and the positive pole which makes a child have a latent sexual feeling for the parent of the opposite sex. This theory of psychological incest was supported by C. G. Jung and shocked the masses. Freud was labelled as a rebel thinker but the facts given by him have added to te body of existing knowledge of psychology, so much so that the entire psychological criticism of literature is based on it. Oedipus Rex and hamlet were understood much better through the Freudian concepts.
Therefore one can conclude that the run of the mill theories and trends can only explain what we already know over and over again but can not add anything worthwhile to human knowledge. On the other hand thoughts that break the barrier of prescribed limits are the ones that benefit mankind. Going with the flow does not challenge the mind; it was designed to swim against the tide. As John A. Shedd said “A ship is safe in its harbor but that is not what ships are built for”
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