How Can Knowledge Be Challenged With New Or Conflicting Uniformities?

ToK Title Paper

Much of the knowledge we have is rooted in certain uniformities. However, there are the conflicting and/or new underlying assumptions within the natural sciences and art. Therefore, my knowledge question is how can knowledge be certain and challenged with new or conflicting uniformities? A uniformity can be defined as a universally accepted concept. In the natural sciences and art, uniformities are a foundation which allows us to build knowledge. Without the existence of uniformities, we cannot gain knowledge in these areas. However, conflicting and new knowledge can show that relying on uniformities can cause us to question our certainty.
Natural science is an area of knowledge where knowledge is comprised of evidence gained

According to the same documentary, to find the mass, researchers derived an equation from existing understandings. Based on the other uniformities, both of these equations would, in theory, work; specifically, however, when trying to find the mass of the galaxy, Triangulum, they found that the galaxy had the mass of 7 billion solar masses using the brightness method and 49 billion solar masses using the orbital method (Perimeter). This is a pretty significant difference, and it shows that basing all of our knowledge on uniformities can cause conflicts when two uniformities are applicable but lead to two different answers. This can ultimately cause us to doubt the knowledge within

Many dance forms which are heavily reliant on uniformities. For example: ballet, a strict and traditional way of dancing where specific techniques are uniformities. Ballet is heavily reliant on sense perception; more specifically, the visual perception of correct techniques, such as pointed toes, good posture, and elongated arms and legs. These technical uniformities provide the foundation of ballet and without the acceptance of these techniques, ballet would cease to exist. However, there can be a situation of conflicting uniformities. Ballet, which originated from areas in Europe, is now practiced globally. Some technical methods could be different from country to country and even person to person. Balanchine, a choreographer, is said to be a founder of American ballet, and has taught many (Koch). His style of American ballet has challenged the accepted techniques of European ballet. For example, in the Balanchine style, the ballet jump, performed in petit allegro, changements it typically done placing one’s heels on the ground as him/her land the jump. The Balanchine style of American ballet, however, teaches that one’s heels must never touch the ground (Holistic). Unlike physics, new knowledge does not break our knowledge or question our certainty within this knowledge, but rather, we must broaden our knowledge of ballet by accepting cultural and/or regional ways of understanding ballet. We should accept both uniformities while