Present Knowledge is wholly dependent on past knowledge.

In an era where the ultimate objective is to understand all that surrounds us. Our addiction to knowledge got us

stuck in an everlasting loop, where we are trying to complete a puzzle with an infinite amount of pieces. Knowledge is

now perceived as the biggest treasure in this world and I have started wondering what led us to this belief, if the most

important discoveries can actually be considered truth and if knowledge from the past is what actually set the foundations

for new discoveries or if these are independent. The question it generated is: Is present knowledge wholly dependent on

past knowledge? To explore this question in the most accurate manner I will investigate two opposite areas of knowledge,

Indigenous Knowledge Systems (IKS) and the Natural sciences(NS) which rely on opposite ways of knowing, memory

and reason. I will approach the essay by narrowing the original question into two more precise questions aiming to

investigate two more specific ideas, the verifiability (IKS), and reproducibility (NS) of past knowledge.

Knowledge from the past can be difficult to verify as to when memory interferes with the process, the truth can be

distorted therefore becoming unreliable. In IKS, we see that a lot of their knowledge is not written down, It is transmitted

from parents to children through oral manners. When this exact knowledge will be shared again it will be filtered through

the way of knowing of memory which will affect its reliability. Barbara Kingsolver says “memory is a relative to truth, but

not it’s twin”1 indicating that memory is close to the truth but it is not necessarily its equal as sometimes it can be

manipulated. Time plays a big role in the WOK of memory, as in this context it is what differs past from present

knowledge, and when talking about orally transferred knowledge that has roots in the distant past, it causes this

knowledge to be difficult, if not impossible to verify. Without verification, information can be asserted or implied causing

knowledge itself to possibly be very distant from the truth. This can be shown with the Inuit tribe, which uses the tool of

storytelling to teach education and discipline. The first story told to kids is the story of Creation which dates back to the

origins of the tribe in 1000 CE. This story has been orally told for thousands of years and has never been written down.

When the shamans of the tribes which are now spread across Greenland, Canada, and Denmark were asked to tell the

story, they were essentially the same but certain characters and places differed. This showed how knowledge has changed

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over time as when confronted about it they all did not remember what the original story was, not being able to verify it,

admitting that certain information was added by them to replace the forgotten details.

However, even if knowledge from the past cannot be verified, it does not mean that it is not useful. In IKS, where

oral traditions such as storytelling are the fundamentals of the knowledge retainment process, verifying knowledge is

almost impossible because as I mentioned earlier it strictly relies on the way of knowing of memory. This WOK can be

misleading, causing the whole knowledge retainment process to be dubious, leading knowledge to be unverifiable,

therefore unreliable. But even if this knowledge cannot be concretely verified, It still can be considered useful as over time

knowledge evolves to fit new societal needs and ideologies. Albert Einstein observed that “memory is deceptive because it

is colored by today’s events.”2 Indicating the WOK to be misleading because of present events, leading us to deduce that

memory takes knowledge from the past and adapts it to the present possibly in order to increase its relevance and

usefulness. This can be shown by the Inuit Indigenous community where storytelling has evolved into becoming a

“method of identifying community needs while also preserving culture and traditions.”3 This community transformed

unverifiable past knowledge coming from their oral storytelling tradition into useful present knowledge which enables

them to adapt to a constantly changing environment, a concept which can be applies to Darwin’s theory of Evolution also

known as “Survival of the fittest,”4 as it states that “organisms that better adapt to their environment survive, while those

who do not adapt become extinct.”5This demonstrates how strictly connected the two concepts are, how knowledge from

the past adapts into new knowledge in order to meet present needs and how organisms adapt into a constantly changing

environment in order to survive.

In conclusion, In IKS verifying knowledge from the past can be very difficult if not impossible as over time the

WOK of memory can be misleading, distorting the original information. However, even if knowledge from the past cannot

be verified it can still be useful as that same knowledge evolves to meet present needs, enabling us as human beings to

adapt better in a constantly changing environment like the Inuit community.

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theroyofknowledge.net
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theconversation.com
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nas.edu
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nas.edu
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 In the NS, it is crucial for past knowledge to be reproducible in the present in order to be considered reliable

knowledge. One aspect that all NS have in common is that knowledge is produced through the scientific method, a

knowledge production process that relies on reproducibility. Galileo Galilei established the concept of the scientific

method through his heavy reliance on empirical knowledge based solely on observations considered truth only once

experimented and reproduced. Through the replication of the experiment, the collection of the data and the observation of

the outcome, we reach a conclusion that is induced by reason, a crucial way of knowing in this field, on the foundations

of its knowledge retainment process. Richard Feynman says “if it disagrees with the experiment is wrong. In that simple

statement is the key to science”6 indicating very similarly to my claim that if knowledge from the past fails to be

reproduced in the present it cannot be considered truth. This can be applied to the theory proposed by Pythagoras that the

Earth was not flat in 500 B.C. As he was observing the “orbital movements of the moon’s terminator(the line dividing the

bright and dark side of the moon)”7, he was able to determine that the moon was round, from which he reasoned that “if

the moon was round then earth must be round as well”8. Then in 430 B.C. the Greek Philosopher Anaxagoras proved the

same theory by determining the true cause of solar and lunar eclipses for which he analyzed the shape of the Earth's

shadow, which then led him to make the same discovery as Pythagoras. This demonstrates that in NS knowledge from the

past is considered truth only once it can be reproduced in the present.

In NS, sometimes knowledge cannot be reproduced therefore following the scientific method does not lead to

reliable knowledge, however, it does not mean that the process of determining that the knowledge is not useful did not

teach us something. From understanding what we did wrong we can still gain useful information on what we can do to

achieve better results in the future stimulating even further the process of knowledge production, leading to improving,

even more, the accuracy of the scientific method. However, we might also discover something which we were not

originally looking for, which shows that even if knowledge cannot be reproduced, it does not mean that it cannot lead us

towards finding useful knowledge which can then be proved. William Ramsay stated that “Progress is made by trial and

failure; the failures are generally a hundred times more numerous than successes”9 indicating that in this AOK progress is

6
farnamstreet.blog
7
gsfc.nasa.gov
8
gsfc.nasa.gov
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everydaypower.com
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composed by both failures and successes, that if knowledge fails to be reproduced it still is useful and equally provides

value, resulting in an improvement of our knowledge production process. Failures are the reason we have successes, as

they can lead to new discoveries. “The physicist Henry Becquerel was studying the properties of X-rays and after his

experiment failed, he then realized that the Uranium stone he was observing emitted radiation instead of X-rays,

discovering radioactivity”10. This discovery shows how an experiment which failed to be reproduced lead to a new

discovery, new knowledge which was then confirmed through the scientific method, demonstrating that even if knowledge

from the past cannot be reproduced in the present, it can still lead to great discoveries of truth.

To conclude in the NS it is crucial for knowledge to be reproducible in order to be considered truth as it strictly

relies on the scientific method. However even if knowledge is not reproducible it does not mean we cannot learn from it as

we either learn what we did wrong and improve the knowledge retainment process itself or sometimes we even end up

discovering things we were not originally looking which can then be confirmed through the scientific method as it

happened to Henry Becquerel with the discovery of radioactivity.

Overall, our analysis clearly brought up enough doubt to negate the title. Present knowledge does not necessarily

depend on past knowledge as we could show that even when knowledge from the past could not be verified or reproduced

in the present, new knowledge of a completely different nature can still be discovered. Present knowledge must not be

wholly dependent from past knowledge as if it would be the scenario, we would only be reaching a deeper understanding

of already existing knowledge, completely removing the possibility of continuing to broaden our horizons as a human

race, limiting the number of pieces of our infinite puzzle.

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www2.lbl.gov
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