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.