Within areas of knowledge, how can we differentiate between change and progress?

Answer with reference to two areas of knowledge

"Change for the sake of change is a cancer cell," as Edward Abby distinctly observes, and progress is

the value-added towards the pursuit of knowledge. Change and progress are two concepts that have

distinct effects on the current knowledge system. The title asserts that in any of the areas of

knowledge, we can distinctly differentiate between change and progress and question how it can be

achieved. Furthermore, the title urges to use two areas of knowledge to differentiate the difference

between change and progress. It can be very well said that each area of knowledge has its different

way of exploring the difference between change and progress, solely because of a diverse range of

knowledge frameworks of different areas of knowledge. The change could be looked through a

perspective as revolutionary, aiding towards a different approach. The guarantee that change will

lead towards the pursuit of knowledge is not viable, as anytime change occurs, the need of

evaluation and feedback is needed. On the other hand, progress is certainly referring to a substantial

step towards the truth. A change can be referred to as progress if the specific area of knowledge

validates the change and the approach as a certain step towards the extraction of knowledge. These

statements will be complimented and countered in Human Sciences and Natural sciences as the

chosen areas of knowledge with the tools of reason, imagination, and intuition.

Natural Sciences refers to an area of knowledge where there are a set of testable postulates to be

followed in order for a change or experiment to be validated. There is a distinguished group of

community that validates the research and either further the change or denounce it. Natural

sciences investigate the natural and man-made world. The knowledge framework of natural sciences

is based on reason, as already indicated on testable proportions. Hence a change would indicate

challenging the very basic concepts which were tested according to the knowledge frameworks

earlier. This poses the question that if these changes would be indicated as progress, and again the

change has to be validated by the scientific community and the testable postulates for it to be
accepted and to be termed as progress. The above claim can be seen in the example when Einstein

developed the concept of relativity. The physics world was taken by a storm when Einstein declared

the idea that time is relative. All the knowledge framework of the scientific community about physics

was built on the concept that time is fixed. Hence this change was initially rejected as it did not aid in

the pursuit of knowledge. But eventually, when Einstein was able to mathematically and

experimentally prove his concepts, the theory was termed as progress and a very significant one as it

changed the Newtonian way of physics. Even today, the theory of relativity marks a significant era of

progress for the physical world as many concepts, and further theories were built on these

principles. Hence for a change to be termed as progress, it needs to be fully proved mathematically

and experimentally. Moreover, it needs to be validated by the scientific community, and hence it's

important for the gatekeepers of natural sciences to have an open mind towards new ideas.

The above claim can be countered by stating that imagination is the key to change, and every

change, regardless of it being true or false, leads to progress. The above counterclaim explains that

any idea or concept, regardless of it being true or false, can be classified as progress. This

counterclaim is supported by the various theories that are developed throughout the century about

the universe. Each time a scientist came up with the theory, it triggered the thinking of the scientific

community in proving or disproving it. In the process, many scientists came up with substantial

works aiding the progress of physics. The same applied to Albert Einstein; while he tried to disprove

Heisenberg's uncertainty principle, he developed the theory of relativity. When Einstein proposed

the theory of the static universe, it led a Belgian priest named Georges Lemaître to propose the

theory of the Big Bang, which was later validated by the scientific community and the testable

proportions. In other words, a change in the way we think leads to progress overall in the area of

knowledge regardless of it being proved right or wrong. This supports the counterclaim that is

thinking and having different ideas aids the pursuit of knowledge, and multiplicity of theories leads

to better understanding and is termed as progress. The quantum world was discovered in the same

manner, and recently the string theory also exhibits the above counterclaim. Although still not
proved, it will help the scientific community make insightful advancements into the theory of matter,

which started with John Dalton's atomic model long proved inaccurate.

The second area of knowledge we explore is the area of human sciences. Human science Is an area

of knowledge that is based on the principle of "tolerating uncertainty." It is the study of human

behavior, civilization, and social groups. Over the years, the area of knowledge has been divided into

various fields like psychology, history, sociology, etc., and each area has specific methodologies for

evaluating the knowledge. Similar to natural sciences, there is a community validating and testing

theories, and many human scientists have differing perspectives. Moreover, in human sciences, a

certain set of claims might not be universal, and much of the knowledge is perspective-based and

based on sense perception. The tools of imagination and intuition are put to use here. Hence in

human sciences, there are constant changes in theories which ultimately lead to progress in the

pursuit of knowledge in the area. This claim is supported by the economic theories of Keynesian and

the neo-classical perspectives. With the fall of the USSR and communism, the neo-classical theory of

economics that the role of the government should be as little as possible for a market to operate

effectively. But after 2008, the Great Depression, and the 1980s crash in the market, Keynesian's

perspective came into effect. It laid out the Wagner law that with economic development, the role

of the government becomes increasingly important. Even today, various human scientists have

different pieces of evidence and opinions to support both of the approaches. Hence the multiplicity

of different theories leads to progress in this particular area of knowledge. Hence it is extremely

complex to differ between change and progress in human sciences because each theory has a

counter-argument, but altogether changes in the areas of knowledge lead to the progress of

knowledge building in the area of knowledge in human sciences.

The above argument can also be countered that multiple changes and theories can lead to further

confusion and be a hindrance in the path of progress in the area of the Human science of

knowledge. They are countering theories on the same concept aid to confusion and distortion of the
truth. There are many examples available in the field of human sciences. The Blank Slate theory (or

Tabula rasa), widely popularized by John Locke in 1689, proposed that individuals are born without

built-in mental content and that their knowledge comes from experience and perception. But

modern research suggests that genes and other family traits inherited from birth, along with innate

instincts, of course, also play a very important role. One of the similar cases was seen in the theories

of the Bandwagon effect and Snob effect. The snob effect implies that the popular the trend, the

more people tend to follow the same, and the bandwagon effect states that the less popular and

more exclusive a trend is, the more the people will try to adapt to it. To a large extent, these two

theories counter each other and aid in confusion about human behaviour. When these theories

were introduced, there was a large extent of change in the way we thought about human behaviour,

but overall, these two theories did not aid the progress in the area of knowledge.

To conclude the investigation, I can assert that the difference between change and progress depends

on the specific areas of knowledge. Another point that can be made is that change is a subpart of

progress, and it can be considered as the first part of progress. Hence the question "How can we

differentiate between change and progress" can be answered by the knowledge framework of the

area of knowledge we are studying. With strict knowledge frameworks, change is an integral part of

progress, and for areas of knowledge where there is an open-minded knowledge framework,

conflicting theories and opinions can lead to a hindrance in the path for progress. Hence there are

different ways of differentiating between change and progress. Progress has a positive connotation

with it, and change has a neutral semantic field and can have positive or negative effects depending

on the nature of change. In natural sciences, change is the key to progress, and in human sciences

sometimes change can sometimes baffle the path towards progress, leading to distortion of

knowledge.
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