User talk:JREverest/sandbox/Approaches to Knowledge/2020-21/Seminar group 5/Evidence

@Evidence in Postcolonial studies
Having personally studied the Algerian war as part of my curriculum in my French high school, your contribution feels very familiar to me. Following this war, France preferred not to use the term “war” to qualify this event but rather “maintenance of order” and “pacification” in order to officially forget the “events” that took place in Algeria. The French historian Benjamin Stora even used the word "buried" war to qualify this war, as this national behaviour felt like an official amnesia at the time. It is not before the 1980s that memory groups sought to make their voices heard, including the returnees from Algeria and the harkis, Algerians auxiliaries who fought alongside French men during the Algerian war.

I also believe, that we, humans, have a selective memory that distorts facts and events. The memory bearer hence has a vision by definition subjective of the past and faces the impossibility to deliver a neutral testimony. Bearing this in mind whilst looking at quantitative and qualitative evidence may help us avoid behind trapped in any single-sided or biased mindset. Mathildem16 (discuss • contribs) 22:52, 25 October 2020 (UTC)


 * Wow, thank you for that insight! I completely agree with what you said about us having selective memory. I'll definitely try to add that as well as the emergence of Algerian war memory groups in the 1980s into my section :) If you would personally like to add anything else to the topic or have any other references that could be used for it, please feel free to do so! Djungelskog1 (discuss • contribs) 21:37, 6 November 2020 (UTC)


 * Thank you...I am very much pleased that my contribution was helpful. I found a documentary which recalls the Algerian War and even includes archive footage from it, co-produced by Gabriel Le Bomin et Benjamin Stora in 2012. It is a bit long, but if you have some time during this lockdown, here is a link to watch it. The "only small problem" is that it is in French, but I am sure subtitles could be added. Here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-GYwdxuD-v4 Mathildem16 (discuss • contribs) 11:58, 9 November 2020 (UTC)

@Gathering Anthropological Evidence Through Ethnography
I'm also interested in this topic, and I was actually going to do it for mine. I mentioned ethnography in my section about documentary film making as much of documentaries use ethnographic methods. I find it really interesting how much they relate to each other. Maybe you could mention how ethnographies are presented in this way in present day? I think it makes research so much more accessible. Basc.blue (discuss • contribs) 01:51, 26 October 2020 (UTC)

The acknowledgement of the biased accounts of explorers and travellers observing foreign societies in anthropological research is important, as it allows one to recognise the possible inaccuracies or misunderstandings in evidence gathered. The development of a different form of anthropological evidence, that being, ethnography, in which the members of this foreign culture give their account from their own perspective allows less room for misunderstanding. However, it is essential that anthropologists gathering ethnographic evidence still remain analytical in their approach. I found your section particularly engaging, as I did not know much about ethnography prior to reading this. Ivoryallen (discuss • contribs) 11:46, 26 October 2020 (UTC)

@AurelieJane
Hi ! I really liked your text on Sociology, but I was wondering where did you find the information you used to write your essay. Could you add the references you used? Undercoverfrench (discuss • contribs) 16:38, 26 October 2020 (UTC)

@Evidence in Physics
I completely agree with what you're saying about the evolutionary nature of Natural Sciences, as over the course of history it has been proven again and again that theories regarded as "absolute truths" were replaced with newfound knowledge. By using the Reductio ad absurdum principle for example you may be able to disprove theories regarded as truths before but some new experiment enables you to show the opposite. One example I found very interesting is about the impact of quantum physics on classical physics. The fact that quantum mechanics were ablo to explain one of Newton's axioms for mechanical physics, the laws of motion, shows how through new evidence gained by experimentation, new knowledge can evolve. You can read more about this here, if interested: http://www.eftaylor.com/pub/QMtoNewtonsLaws.pdf. poccy3 (discuss • contribs) 18:40, 26 October 2020 (UTC)


 * @poccy3 Thank you so much for sharing this article with me, I had not recognised the impact of quantum physics on classical physics prior to this. This is one of many examples which demonstrates the need for collaboration when one attempts to expand on prior scientific knowledge, as reflecting on evidence already gathered allows one to build on the knowledge which they already have. This could either be through the criticism and rejection of other theories and the evidence which supports them, or, through the conducting more experiments in support of said theories, either way, new knowledge will evolve. --Ivoryallen (discuss • contribs) 13:54, 8 November 2020 (UTC)


 * @Ivoryallen Glad you liked it! I agree with the criticism one should have when looking at established theories, because if we just take them as they exist, no one would challenge prior knowledge, which could limit us in our collective expansion of knowledge. In general, I think the quote from Socrates "I know that I know nothing" describes well the caution we should adopt concerning our knowledge. (I am of course not saying we should reject every theory but look at how they were established and not take them as given.)poccy3 (discuss • contribs) 16:15, 9 November 2020 (UTC)

@evidence in mathematics
@Bonschlonzo Very interesting section about the topic. I may suggest to illustrate where the Pytharogas theorems is applicable today through a practical point of view. For example, we can observe that in architecture it is used to calculate the height of buildings and the length of walls. This was explicitly noticeable during the egyptian time with pyramids. Except this minor edit, your text remains very enriching.


 * @UClqevy Thanks a lot for your additional knowledge and striving interest. I have just made the edit, have a look if you want to, if it is what you would have thought of!

@Evidence in Architecture
@UCLqevy I really like the background knowledge and effort you put into your text, as it not only gives insides about pure architecture, however, links to the field of different scientific disciplines, especially the detail in EBD. I found another research article from Perkins & Will about the interior and exterior design of an education building, maybe you could include this as another example of EBD to urge for a better understanding. This is the link for he article, have a look, maybe there is something which could be added to your research. https://spaces4learning.com/articles/2013/07/01/evidence-based-design.aspxBonSchlonzo (discuss • contribs) 11:17, 7 November 2020 (UTC)


 * @BonSchlonzo Thank you for your comment! Indeed, this is very interesting to see that EBD is also used in the teaching area... I will make a small edit.

@Evidence in Documentary Filmmaking
@Basc.blue I find it fascinating how the research methods of pseudosciences such as cryptozoology (my section) are largely the same as that of documentaries (being reliant on observation, interviews and such), yet when presented in a documentary they are always dismissed as being false claims. I believe it is plausible to say that the lack of evidence does not equate to the lack of existence, but the fact that this interpretation is never presented is proof of your suggestion that documentaries push a certain view on a subject. Aside from the link to my chosen discipline, I very much enjoyed your contribution, as I was previously among those who took documentaries to be factual truths. WoodzyMoodzy (discuss • contribs) 11:00, 9 November 2020 (UTC)

@Evidence in Cryptozoology
Hello,

As I never heard from Cryptozoology before in my life, I was really curious to learn about it. I would be very interested to know how you came along with the idea to write about evidence in Cryptozoology :). It is really interesting to see that because this subdiscipline can only rely on empirical evidence, it is hard for it to exist has a real subdiscipline. Maybe this subdiscipline is more related to Literature than to Zoology. It seems to be a real debate.

Some animals such as the Baku seems to came right from fiction. Its abilities seem surreal. I agree with you about the fact that researchers should really distinguished the rare from the mythological. For me, learning from mythology or stories is important. I believe that every story start with a part of reality. Studying myths may bring to the discovery of rare animals.

Jadaireu (discuss • contribs) 16:43, 10 November 2020 (UTC)