In order to have healthy answer for this question, I think we have to first identifiy what disagreement is, why it occurs and also to determine between who and where it occurs in order for it to contribute the pursuit of knowledge.
Disagreement is a conflict of people’s diversity of opinions or actions or characters. There are approximately 7 billion people in the world from different backgrounds, cultures, with a wide age range, and also variety of gender. Two ways of knowing known as perception and emotion used in obtaining knowledge, can vary among the people based on gender, age, culture, environment, level of education and religion. The variation of perception and emotions of the people are the main factors that cause disagreement between individuals in the pursuit of knowledge. A person raised in an environment in which progressive ideology was adopted with high education degree will have different perception and emotionional approach from a different angle in considering ”legalization of same sex marriage” compare to someone that was raised in conservative environment with a high school diploma. Disagreement between individuals contains miscellaneous opinions that is arised by variety of perception and emotion among the people. According to TOK, perception and emotion are referred as key factors of knowing and since, disagreement is caused by variety of perceptions and emotions, then, I think that disagreement is key to a deeper understanding in all endeavors and in pursuit of knowledge. If we only surround ourselves with those who agree with us without any presence of opposition, then we will never stretch our minds nor test our limitations. Also, If we would not have disaagreements caused by variety of perspectives, we would not have knowledge that carries universal or national value; knowledge would be unstable among the nations or perspectives.
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I think that knowledge produced as an outcome of the disagreement has broader validity or universal acceptance based on variety of perceptions and emotions used in obtaining it. Without disagreement over an issue, there would be no further development of humankind. It would be knowledge that would just benefit limited amount of people that shares the same emotions and perceptions. It would be considered as fallacy for the peope who has different perspectives ,caused by perceptions and emotions, towards that issue.
The reason behind why science makes progress precisely is presence of disagreement. Scientists mention that none of the theories are absolutely true but the most recent ones are the best natural explanation available. In science, disagreement is caused by idea of Falsification that was driven by Karl Popper. The falsification is the idea that, after a theory is being created, other scientist tries to evaluate and refute the validity of that theory. Along this process, the theory becomes much stronger and reliable as more possibilities are taken away. Also during these conflicts variety of ideas lead to enrichment of the subject matter of the issue. The idea of Falsification makes disagreement essential in the pursuit of knowledge. Scientist is considered a salesman, who is trying to sell his or her ideas. If idea of a scientist provides a better fit to the evidence, it becomes temporary theory. We refer it as a temporary theory because its validity can be refuted during Falsification process. Scientists improve their ideas by the ciriticism of their pers and the science advances through that process. Sometimes, scientist can not recognize their errors in their theories or experiments, due to their biased, but other scientist can determine the fallacy in other scientist’s theory through disagreement, which contributes scientific knowledge. As I mentioned before, science does not establish any idea on an absolute basis. Science’s most respected ideas are promoted from their originial status as hypothesis to theory to law, but even laws can be superseded. For example, Newton’s Law of Gravity was supplanted by Einstein’s Theory of General Relativity. The Abraham- Minkowski debate is an example of scientific controversy that led to further investigation and perhaps it has persisted for a century. After further investigation of the controversy, scientist state that the controversy was occured by insufficiency of another theory known as Maxwell-Lorenz theory that caused so much confusion for a long period of time among the scientists. By further investigation in this area caused by disagreement, led to acquiring of more knowledge in that particular area and also elimination of previous fallacies.
Another reason why disagreement occurs in science is different perceptions and emotions of the scientists based on their background, which affects their approach towards an issue (considering its ethics) and this creates conflicts between scienctist. An example for that would be the Embryotic stem cell research. Nowadays, disaagrement occurs between scientists in use of embryotic stem cell in replacing or creating tissue for the people, who may need it. The issue is these embryotic stem cells are obtained from a blastocyst ( 5 days embryo). By obtaining these embryotic cells from the blastocyst, its further development is prevented and it is basicly destructed . Some scientists do not find it ethic to kill innocant something that will later form human for curing someone else. But, opposing scientist state that blastoycst is a 5 day embryo that does have any characteristics of a human meaning that it does not include any organs – respiratory systems – that makes him a human Disagrement arising from these 2 sides based on different perceptions and emotions is led into in depth analyze of the other stem cells found in body that could also replace the old organs. There is no absolute resolution of the controversy- but it led to further investigation on other stem cell tissues, such as Induced Pluripotent stem cells ,which might have same effect as embryotic stem cells. If there would be no controversy against use of stem cells, there would be no investigation in other tissues found in human body that would have same affect as embryotic stem cells. On the other hand, some religious perspectives point out that the further development of this investigation would trigger discovery of coloning of people. As a result, disagreement occurs between scientist and religious leaders. Since the areas of these 2 opposing sides are focusing on different subjects, this controversy would not be resoluted that would contribute to the pursuit of knowledge.
There are also some examples that demonstrate the disadvantages of disagreements and creates confusion among humankind. For examples, some doctors say that women should undergo mammography for early detection of a cancer cell. But some doctors say that mammography itself causes cancer, therefore, women should not use it. This disagreement between these 2 opposing doctors leads to confusion among women whether to go through mammography or not.
Disagreements also occur in politics. Disagreements between opposing parties during the elections reveals the lacking reforms of both parties in some particular areas, which contributes societies knowledge and increases awareness. For example, there was a disagreement in the implementation of the Affordable Care Act between President Obama and Governer Romney. Governer Romney mentioned that the act would harm the economy, add to the deficit, and cause the price of healthcare to rise, rather than fall. On the other hand, President Obama stated that the law greatly expands access to healthcare and will boost the economy. Both sides revealed the facts that would caused by the act as the result of disagreement. Revealing information related to the act awakened awareness among the people, and its evaluation was easier whether it should be implemented or not, by the people based on amount of knowledge obtained from the disagreement.
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I personally think that disagreement is key fact in obtaining knowledge in human sciences. For example, when I order a food with my friend, my friend prefers ceaser salad and I prefer peperoni pizza. Disagreement arising in making this decion lead me and my friend revealing the facts, for example amount of calory, taste or ingredients, related to food that will whether have positive or negative effect on us. By evaluating all these facts as a result of the disagreement, we choose something that will have appeal on both of us and we obtain knowledge related to this concept, which will later help us in our future decisions.
Disagreement caused by variety of perceptions and emotions among the people, is a key fact for a deep understanding in a particular area and knowledge obtained from the disagreement holds more value and has universal appeal such as Einstein – Newton controversy. But in order for disagreement to aid pursuit of knowledge, there are limits such as ”Where” and ”Between Who” it occurs.
http://www.nature.com/scitable/topicpage/turning-somatic-cells-into-pluripotent-stem-cells-14431451 – stem cells
http://arxiv.org/abs/1208.0872 – the Abraham-Minkowski Controversy
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