Error Is as Valuable as Accuracy in the Production of Knowledge

    “Error is as valuable as accuracy in the production of knowledge.”

To what extent do you agree with this statement?

Knowledge can acquired from the lack of knowledge. One the humans greatest attributes is the ability to learn from their mistakes and through this gain a better understanding on how things correlate in our world. Such may be apparent in Thomas Edison's road into the creation of the light bulb from the years 1878, and 1879, and can even be seen in animal behaviour.  Yet through historic events such as the first and second world war there is evidence that we do not gain knowledge from our mistakes.

Thomas Edison was a physicist who took on the task of         creating a light source which ran on electricity, and which would be more efficient than the previously used candle. As a child Thomas Edison's teachers said he was "too stupid to learn anything."(But They Did Not Give Up) and  as an adult he was fired from his first two jobs for being "non-productive.". What both of these quotes have in common is they represent lack of knowledge in an individual who is believed to have sustained a large amount of knowledge during his lifetime. This is due to Thomas Edison’s invention of the light bulb. In 19th century people used candles and gaslights as their only source of light during the dark hours of the day. These where hazardous as didn’t fulfill their purpose of lighting up the room, too well. It was only in 1879 that Thomas Edison created a source of light more powerful than any other created ever before. It is believed that as an inventor, Edison made 1,000 unsuccessful attempts at inventing the light bulb. When a reporter asked, "How did it feel to fail 1,000 times?" Edison replied, "I didn’t fail 1,000 times. The light bulb was an invention with 1,000 steps."(But They Did Not Give Up) This is evidence of him describing the different pieces of knowledge that he acquired during his trial and error process as he created the lightbulb. Another example can be Even animals gain knowledge from their mistakes. For example a young wolf learns that he must waits first for the big wolfs. This is a way to teach animals as well. If they do not learn from their mistakes we won't be able to teach them.

HIstory is an area of Knowledge and is based on the modern society in the 21st century learning from mistakes made in the past. Therefore it is quite surprising that the contradicting claim is directly tied in with the AOK of History. ONe of history's most tragic global event was The First World War. The war first started on the 28th of july 1914, till the 11th of november 1918. During a period of a little more than 4 years, more than 70 million soldiers and civilians were killed. Once finished many though such events wouldn’t take place again in history, yet just 21 years later a second world war broke out. This time it lasted close to six years during which more than a hundred million individuals were killed. A man named Confucius once said "Our greatest glory is not in never falling but in rising every time we fall." This directly correlates to the event which took place during the first and second world war as humanity fell and wasn’t allowed to get up again.  Another man named Santayana wrote (in The Life of Reason, 1905) was: “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” This although written before the beginning of the world wars, it still describes what it was that happened in during that period of time. Through this we can understand that the outbreak of the second world war was caused by humanity's lack of determination to used the knowledge acquired from mistakes in the past.