IntroductionWe tend to decide some things or believesome things because of or on bases of strong historical reasoning. However,this reasoning is shared knowledge thus it gives rise to assumptions. Uponconsidering our personal knowledge from the shared knowledge we have received,we are inclined to assume the future results and hence we take decisions consideringthese assumptions as uniformities – and to be real. An assumption can be stated as apowerful imagination, which we trust to be true. The power of assumption canmake anything possible just the way an imagination can make anything seem real.
The difference between both is that one is done with conscious mind whereas theother is a subconscious thought. Therefore, we have faith in the existence ofassumptions and not in imagination, which is merely an illusion of fantasy orfear. Without the existence of assumptions, imagination cannot become realitybecause until we do not assume that the imagination can be created in real, itwill all just stay in our mind.However, with reference to MerriamWebster dictionary, assumption is defined as the act of laying claim to ortaking possession of something that requires faith to justify itself. (Merriam Webster, 2017) Assumptions are not limited to the specificareas of knowledge. However, they also play a very important role in our dailylives; women assume measurements of ingredients while cooking like two fistsfor 2 cups, while solving exam questions we assume our method and answer to becorrect. Also some scientific values are assumed to be uniform while they arenot really constant, for example value of gravity is assumed to be 9.
8m/s butthis figure is not accurate however it is considered to be uniform for theoriesto be evolved. Uniformities can be scientificallyexpressed as assumptions made into facts to be used to build and give reasoningto theories in all areas of knowledge or according to the Merriam Websterdictionary – the quality or state of being uniform. (Merriam Webster, 2017) Without the existence of these assumptions to beuniform, people would not have faith on theories and neither will they be ableto justify such philosophies. Thus, “Withoutassumption of the existence of uniformities there can be no knowledge” andNatural Sciences can be used as an area of knowledge to discuss this claim withfaith and reasoning as way of knowing to explore it further.Howare assumed uniformities in Physics considered constant to justify scientifictheories?From this protestation, I claim that because an average uniform value is, moreor less, equal to the real value therefore it can be assumed true – as well astheir results.
I realized this when once in my physics class, we weresolving a mechanics’ question and we had to use acceleration of free fall valueto solve it hence I used 10m/s as in IGCSE we had learned that this is anuniform figure for gravity. However, my teacher corrected me saying that theaccurate value of acceleration of free fall is 9.8m/s in fact the real value isranged between 9.779m/s and 9.
819m/s, discovered first by Galileo Galilei – 400years back and then evolved by the NASA but using 10m/s can still give us thesame answer. (Nancy H.,2015) The induced reasoning is that, the valueof acceleration of free fall changes according to the distance between theobject and the Earth because the attractive force between them also differs. Therefore,it is necessary to find the average to know the standard value of gravity – as valueof gravity is equal for all objects in the Earth’s gravitational field – sothat it can be used in formulae to justify theories like why two objectsfalling from the same height has same acceleration of free fall regardless oftheir masses.
This explains that, everyuniform value in Physics is rounded up to a smaller figure before being used ina scientific expression to make the calculations easier and simpler.However, countering the above claim; these uniform values are only assumed to beconstant therefore they cannot be trusted to give accurate results as thesemight be different for places around the world hence they also cannot be established as SI units. The value ofroom temperature –24°C or 25°C – which is assumed to be an uniform unit thus itis used all over the world during scientific experiments. Ingrade 11, I had performed an experiment where I had to burn ethanol to boilwater and work out the difference between room temperature and the highesttemperature reached. However, I noticed that we assumed the room temperature tobe 25°C whenactually the temperature of Ahmedabad was 32°C. After conducting the same experiment for my chemistryassessment in Tanzania, my random error bars of my result graph came smallerthan the results I had obtained in India.
Later, during my analysis I realizedthat because Tanzania’s room temperature is close to the value assumed thanthat of India’s therefore my results differed. Well, the deducted reasoning forthis is so that researchers from all over the world can use this figure toconduct experiments and attain same results like me. Howdoes the indigenous society assume uniformities to create their knowledge?The second area of knowledge I wouldlike to discuss is Indigenous Knowledge forms – with reference to faith andreasoning as my ways of knowing. Indigenous Knowledge forms are knowledgesystems developed by a community as opposed to the scientific knowledge. Thus,indigenous knowledge like Pranic healing, divine healing and black magicrequire faith of an individual on these knowledge and its uniformities formthem to benefit from this discipline. Hence, I claim that perceiving knowledge from natural powers is a belief that does notrequire justification as the only thing that is natural is nature thereforeits uniformities can be believed to be true.For instance, Reiki, which is a form of healingpeople, developed in 1922, by Japanese Buddhist Mikao Usui.
These Reikipractitioners use a technique called palm healing through which a”universal energy” is transferred through the palms of thepractitioner to the patient in order to heal them emotionally or physically. (Usui, Mikao; et al. 2000) This type of medication is believed towork only if the patient trusts the disciplines of this knowledge to heal itsbody.
However in contradiction, these types ofsocieties (indigenous) do not have scientific explanation of theiruniformities, for example Reiki is pseudoscience. Moreover, the life force,which is believed to heal a person, has no traces of its existence. Thus, counterclaiming my above claim; uniformities ofIndigenous Knowledge, established by the indigenous society cannot be justified,as they are blind beliefs. For example, of this, I would like toshare an experience; a year ago, my uncle had an operation and he consulted hisfriend, who is a part of indigenous society, to ask whether there is any way ofreducing his pain. His friend asked him to relax, chanted some words in hismind, and kept his hand on my uncle’s head. After few hours my uncle could notbear the pain, thus he stood up angrily saying such treatments are myths. Thisincident made me think that we tend to believe something only until itinterests us.
One’s faith has ability to manipulate his/her mind and follow theirconviction therefore if he/she has faith on a specific type of treatment theyare healed faster compared to those who doubt this knowledge like my uncle. ConclusionIn summation, different people have beliefson different uniformities depending on their desire of acquiring thatknowledge. However, people not knowing the assumed uniformities of theknowledge still received and believed the same knowledge, for example themedieval people while some uniformities where established by them. Perspectivesalso change according to one’s faith, for instance some religious assumptionsmay not be accepted by different societies or even different age groups. Theirconviction may tell them to believe uniformities with strong scientificexplanation. Nevertheless, assumed measurements or uniformities for cooking maynot be understood by men as much as women (or vise versa) – as they used to it.Assumption of uniformities is possessionof concept of knowing a rule, which is required to obtain knowledge. Mostly allassumed uniformities are accepted worldwide and are made into facts hencedoubting them will deprive us from receiving knowledge.
However, it is notnecessary to believe all uniformities blindly as they are not verified oncethey are found to be uniform and have chances of being altered. As mentioned inthe essay, assumptions can be personal knowledge although only up to a certainextent but when they are defined as uniformities they extensively become sharedknowledge hence it becomes difficult to change them. Overall, a uniform value already existsthere like gravity force but only after it is discovered it is believed toprovide knowledge or become a source of knowledge.
Whereas a knowledge alsoneeds assumed uniformities to make it firm and reliable, for instance theformula E=mc2 is useless until and unless speed c of light isassumed to be a uniform value. However, in contradiction, some assumeduniformities like life force or right measurement of ingredient only exist inour minds therefore in my opinion we should only believe and use uniformitieswith strong scientific explanation to acquire knowledge. On the other hand, Ialso agree to the fact that without assuming something uniform, there can be noknowledge – as there is lack of faith of the knowledge being real.
