Alisha Sharaballi

001805-016

It is more important to discover new ways of thinking about what is already known than to discover new data or facts. To what extent would you agree with this claim? Humans have gained knowledge for millenniums through curiosity, creativity, critical analysis and serendipity. The basic human need to investigate the everyday phenomena led to the discovery of several fairly important facts such as better understanding of the human body, electricity and the invention of the wheel. But in our quest to develop at an exponential rate, we must ask ourselves which would be a better way to accumulate more knowledge the development of new ways of thinking about knowledge that we have or the simple discovery of new data or facts? The two terms are part of a cyclic process. We discover something which results in the obtainment of new data/facts. When we apply different ways of thinking to this knowledge, we may obtain an entirely different result and hence gain more knowledge. On the other hand, through a chance discovery we may also obtain new data unlike any other that exists. Through the use of 2 areas of knowledge natural sciences, and art along with the incorporation of the ways of knowing of reason, emotion, and perception, I will attempt to prove my theory. Before moving further, it seems necessary to define the key terms in the question. How can we define new ways of thinking and the discovery of new data or facts? Personally, I feel that new ways of thinking require critical analysis along with the ability to think outside the box. Ways of thinking are invented each day as each person has a unique process of thought and experience; presented with the same information they may come up with several different ideas. New data or facts can be discovered through the application of new ways of thinking upon previously existing knowledge or serendipity. But these two terms also vary when it comes to the context of their usage. In the area of natural sciences, there is a constant quest to search for new, more advanced data. There is no end to research as not only is new data being produced but

Alisha Sharaballi

001805-016

everyday scientists are coming up with new ideas based on their existing data. For example, a new discovery for science was the discovery of the elements. But soon after the discovery of several elements by looking at the bonding capabilities of these elements, scientists came up with compounds. By using their perception of the characteristics of the different elements and by thinking in different ways and trying to apply particular elements to different uses, they were able to come up with something entirely new. Albert Einstein is reputed for his formula =
2

. By Einsteins time, there had been

myriad scientists who had spent countless hours researching the components of this equation - energy, matter and the speed of light. There were many theories and mathematical equations that existed and the scientists of the time were quite pleased with these. Although there were a few situations these theories did not apply to, these situations were deemed insignificant. Einstein thought differently. He constantly questioned himself and set riddles for himself. These riddles were set forth to see if the theories present at that time could answer them. Einsteins ability to think unlike scientists before helped him succeed in formulating =
2

. (Orman, M. n.d.) He looked at a pre-existing topic through different

eyes by refusing to simply overlook anomalies. By doing this he also used reason and emotion to justify his findings. On the other hand, penicillin is said to have been discovered by complete chance. Actually, Alexander Fleming noticed that colonies of bacteria existing near the mold were dissolving as the mold grew. (Bellis, M. n.d.) He thus moved forward to investigate this further. He used his perception of the situation and applied it. This also connects to emotion as Alexander was curious about his findings and this application resulted in the discovery of penicillin.

Alisha Sharaballi

001805-016

When looking at discoveries in the natural sciences, it seems that all discoveries have been made through the cyclic process of using different ways of thinking upon our knowledge to obtain new information. When looking at history, there are several instances where a new way of thinking has led to the discovery of new information. Coco Chanel is a designer who has left a lasting impression of womens fashion in the 20th century. When she began, she lacked the funding to purchase expensive material and instead used jersey. Until the time Coco Chanel started her business, jersey was a cloth used to make mens underwear. This was a new discovery for the fashion industry. Jersey draped very well over the silhouette and as Coco Chanels designs were inspired by mens clothing, it was quite practical too. Moving away from the fashion industry, Apple products have left their mark on the 20th century. Specifically the iPhone, iPod touch and iPad with features like touch screen technology, Apple has invented some of the most amazing products in existence today. But the discovery of touch screen technology can first be traced back to a short article published in 1965 by E. A. Johnson. Over the years, touch screen technology has been used in different situations to make different control systems, virtual worlds and several tablets to make life a lot simpler which brings us back to the iPad. Although Apple may not have discovered touch screen technology, their revision of it to make it move at incredibly fast speeds has brought us to another level in technology. When we look at trends in history, we find that much of the new information such as fashion trends or technological trends find their roots in a lot of known data. But unique people such as Coco Chanel and Steve Jobs have found ways of using the previous data and manipulating it into something that is new to the world. In a way, they recycle the previous data to create something entirely new. (Krick, J. 2004)

Alisha Sharaballi

001805-016

In the arts, Korean and Japanese horror movies have become incredibly influential and popular. Until the 1990s, horror movies had focused on gore. When Korean and Japanese horror focused on the horror of a womans ghost which focused more on psychological fear rather than the shock factor of blood and guts, these movies became increasingly popular and influenced many remakes made in Hollywood, Bollywood and several other movie making businesses. They used emotion to appeal more to the audience rather than simply shocking them. This way of rethinking the genre of horror brought horror movies to a whole new level that appealed to the audience a lot more than they had before.(Schwartzman, N. 2009) Which is more important: new ways of thinking or the discovery of new data/facts? New data or facts can be obtained through a new way of thinking about previous existing knowledge. New data or facts need to exist but at the same time, to further our knowledge, we must also have new ways of thinking to further discover new data or facts. But the application of these two concepts varies. In areas of knowledge such as sciences, there is an endless process where we may obtain a lot of new information from looking at previously existing knowledge in new ways. But at the same time these new ways of thinking must result in new discoveries to appeal to the population today.

Alisha Sharaballi

001805-016

Works Cited
Mary Bellis n.d. The History of Penicillin. Last accessed 24th Jan 2012. <http://inventors.about.com/od/pstartinventions/a/Penicillin.htm> Mort Orman. n.d. How EI STEI Arrived at E=MC2. Last accessed 24th Jan 2012. <http://www.stresscure.com/hrn/einstein.html> Krick, Jessa. (October 2004) "Gabrielle "Coco" Chanel (18831971) and the House of Chanel". In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. Last accessed 24th Jan 2012 New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000. <http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/chnl/hd_chnl.htm> Johnson, E.A. (1965). "Touch Display - A novel input/output device for computers". Electronics Letters 1(8): 219220. Schwartzman, N. (June 2009). "Why Do Korean Horror Movies Have Only Female Ghosts?" Asian Correspondent. Accessed 24th Jan 2012 <http://asiancorrespondent.com/23554/why-do-korean-horror-movies-have-only-femaleghosts/>