Discuss the claim that some areas of knowledge are discovered and others are invented

An invention may be defined as a new device, method, or process developed from study and experimentation whereas a discovery is an act or process of finding something or somebody, or learning about something that was not known about before. Invention is result of human intelligence and is formed by the medium of reasoning, but discovery is the revelation or unleashing something that already exists. Invention is usually material and discovery is generally natural. However, in the case of different areas of knowledge, the question that creates diverse perspectives is, whether or not, some of the areas of knowledge discovered or are they invented. This question itself may have many biases as the word ‘invention’ may also be figuratively recognized as something ‘fabricated’, as a false statement. Hence different outlooks of the same may also be verified.

Taking for example in the case of Isaac Newton; the instance when he witnessed the apple falling from the tree on to the ground caused him to reason that every particle of matter in the universe attracts every other particle with a force that is directly proportional to the product of the masses of the particles and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between them, this was the discovery of Gravitation. Yet, the law itself was invented by him. Newton's Law of Universal Gravitation states:

F=Gm₁m₂/d²

F is the force of gravity, G is a constant (the Gravitational Constant) which can be measured, m₁ and m₂ are the masses of the two objects (earth and apple), and d is the distance between them.

However, opposing this is the metamorphic fact that this idea is just a ‘fabrication’ in the form of an untrue statement. This means that there may be a possibility for this ‘invention’ to be falsified.

Philosophically put, ‘invention’ means that the laws of nature are nothing but an outgrowth of human activities. It may be some approximation to something essentially intangible, because there are no absolute truths, ‘discovery’ on the other hand means that the laws of nature exist in a defined form and that there is a possibility to determine them in total or in parts and to describe them in some language.

Hence, following this we may take an example from art; whether it is invented or discovered? It is important to distinguish between two truths, the work of art and what the art tries to convey. The work of art itself, such as the poem or the painting, is an invention. However what the art conveys will most certainly be a discovery this may be either the artists or the discovery that some other human made. For example, there are paintings that challenge our visual perceptions, for example in Leonardo da Vinci’s painting, the Mona Lisa; the facial expressions for instance may signify something. It is this significance that accounts to be a discovery for the artwork. This certainly conveys something we did not invent, as they are our own perceptual abilities and hence our discovery.

The origin of language, also known as ‘glottology’, is a topic that has attracted attention throughout human history. Language too is considered as a particular Area of Knowledge unclear whether discovered or invented. Language may be said to be discovered with aid from the past. This is because it is due to these ancient scriptures, may it be in the form of drawings, engravings, body language, sounds or words, of the past that evolves language and rediscovering new aspects of it unseen previously. Nevertheless, it may be argued that language originally may be believed to be invented as a result of human thinking. If supposed animals had language before humans, it might be said that man discovered language from animals, but then humans invented their own by fabricating over the older versions of language.

In the field of Music too a similar scenario is seen. Music is a subject that is originally discovered. This is because no one invented music; it is simply sounds put together. Music can include any type of sound. It could be the thundering of the skies and rain on a monsoon day that can create music. Music may evolve from self driven emotions which can make one perceive what one wants music to be. The earliest humans would make music by putting sounds together which could be beating on something, rubbing sticks together, clapping, humming, whistling or making any other such sounds or noises. The evolution of music is what provokes ‘inventions’. It is not music that is invented but its elements. Common elements of music are pitch, rhythm, tempo, meter, articulation, dynamics, timbre and texture.

The creation of different musical instruments that play a particular sound is regarded to be ‘inventions’, for that simple reason that it is a brand new idea of a man to create something by himself which has never before been created. From sounds put together by hitting strings on a guitar to pressing keys on a piano that creates different pitches. Again, music is simply sounds put together. The different genres of music such as hip-hop, r n b, rap, rock, psychedelic, etc, may also be considered as a form of ‘discovery’ since it is on the basis of the elements that these genres are formed. These may be discoveries derived from inventions.

Another interesting area of knowledge that is invented is Mathematics. An interesting example is under its sub-topic, trigonometry. The history of trigonometry goes back to the earliest dated mathematics in Egypt and Babylon. Until the time of the Greeks, no considerable amounts of trigonometry exist. In the 2nd century BC the astronomer Hipparchus compiled a trigonometric table for solving triangles. He is regarded as the inventor of trigonometry. It is this table that is now recalled the sine table. This invention has lead to the discovery of many computations in astronomy, for example, the fact that only the planets moved on the sphere and that earth is also a planet was discovered from the basis of this table.

Another example under the same field can be taken from the famous Pythagoras Theorem which states that in any right triangle, the area of the square whose side is the hypotenuse (the side opposite the right angle) is equal to the sum of the areas of the squares whose sides are the two legs (the two sides that meet at a right angle). This Theorem has been invented by Greek Mathematician Pythagoras. The formula he invented is:

Visualize a flight of stairs; we may discover from these stairs that the Pythagoras Theorem has been utilized for its construction. This is because if realized the staircase too is in a right angle triangle. Hence, based on the invented formula, the length and angles of each of its sides and vertices may be discovered.

Thereby, in my personal opinion there are cases where an area of knowledge is either a definite invention or a discovery. However, both are almost always relied and dependant on each other and at times creates one another. It can be concluded by saying that inventions and discoveries may go hand in hand. But which is more relevant may be uncertain as, there is no absolute truth. Thus the claim that some areas of knowledge are discovered and others invented stands plausible.

The three things in history that has impacted our lives.

History has an impact mankind right from the moment of its birth. Since then it has altered our lives as a whole and is a major contributor to mankind's evolution. Similarly there have often been instances where my opinion about history has been turned over.
a very striking example that shook my opinions of the NASA completely was that of the 'moon landing conspiracy'. Before this conspiracy I was very impressed by the NASA as it was a well-known organization that discovers and creates. Well it sure did seem to 'create'. It used to stand up to me like an institute that was filled with mysteries waiting to be resolved. A body, that was in contact with the world above earth, into the stars, the different moons and planets,etc. However my idea of this is shaken. I could not believe the different conspiracies I read of in the newspapers and on T.V. of how the landing on the moon was a bluff as it was supposedly filmed and no one in reality landed on the moon. It was just breath-taking and made me perceive for the moment that nothing in this world of lies can be trusted upon.
Another example is when I studied about a particular concept called 'Gross National Happiness' in economics. So far I had studies about gross domestic and national income of an economy it was very amusing to learn that in Bhutan the King, instead of looking more at the economical prosperity in his kingdom considers emotions of his people far greater of importance,;hence in Bhutan they try to calculate the rate of happiness among the locals of the kingdom. It interested me that there were such interesting facts of economics i had not known about in the fourth year of my studying in Economics.
A third example of an impact on me was in terms of theater. The theater of the Absurd was an unknown theater art form to me until I had joined the IB course. The fact that this theater was also called Nonsensical Theater amazed me and got me thinking. It was only after a play I witnessed, 'Waiting For Godot', that I realized the essence of this theater type. It had no start, no plot and no end. One could derive his\her own message from this play based on his own reasoning. I tried to derive something but landed up with nothing to understand. this theater form had left me amidst confusion but interest of knowing what it really means and what is its relevance.

The only thing we learn from history is that we learn nothing from history.

History is the study of the past, with special attention to the written record of the activities of human beings over time. But the question lies whether history is relevant or not and if it really is then what is its importance. Hence arise numerous perspectives leading onto conflicting emotions as a result of an effort of justifying individual reasoning.
Do we learn nothing from history? All the tales and stories of past kings, countries, cultures, religions, etc, do they give us accurate knowledge from which one may be able to learn something? In my personal opinion I think so. Even though history is not always proved, it does have its perspective of its own from which a knower may learn from whether they are in reality learning of the whole truth or not. Learning can be in any form, good or bad, for the positive or negative, it is all a part of learning. For example in 1912 the ocean liner Titanic was considered the safest ship afloat but hit an iceberg and sank on its first voyage. This gives out a clear message that nothing in this world can be really relied on completely as everything in the world has its drawbacks may it be the safest ship in the world or anything else. Based on this example another reasoning can also be drawn; if this event would not have occured there would probably not have been any major technological advancement in the nautical industry of the world, no improvement in ships for instance would take place.
Another thing we learn from history is not to make the stupid mistakes that generations before us have made. However this generalization may aslo be refuted with another:
For example, governments repeat the same mistakes every time. Britain built an empire, colonised half the world at one time, and so did the Nazis. Politics is the same mistakes repeating themselves. Sometimes they get away with it, sometimes they don't. It is no longer countries that seek Empires but ideals. Thereby, it may be argued that if we learned from History, these ideals would never have been allowed to enter our world.
Even a simple social issue may be essential. The Bra Burning movement: In the late 1960s, some of the emblems of femininity became targets of feminist activism. Feminists charged that these objects, typified as patriarchal, reduced women to the status of sex objects. Some women publicly disavowed bras in an anti-sexist act of female liberation. As a result of this movement the women of the world have been released (though not completely) from the clutches of sex discrimination. History hence is a boon her,e as educated human beings learn to respect the opposite sex.
However, it should be realised that what is important to learn from history is more important than what we individually want to perceive. That is the reason why the question of for and against comes up because we as knowers have not realized what should be true and what should not. It's not that we DO learn from or mistakes, it's that we SHOULD learn from our mistakes. If we don't learn from the mistakes of the past it will happen again. The world has blindly derived something out of nothing and thus does not not know what to be considered as a lesson from history and what a boon.