Essay

“People need to believe that order can be glimpsed in the chaos of events” (Adapted from John Gray, Heresies, 2004). In what ways and to what extent would you say this claim is relevant in at least two areas of knowledge?



This quote is heavily relevant to all the areas of knowledge, but particularly to history and social sciences. In both the social sciences and history, there are numerous examples of patterns being discovered and applied to these respective fields.


In History, the historian is seeking to discover a pattern in the events of the past. Events that are not necessarily related, yet which are seen in an overall pattern. These events may not be related to each other. Yet in history there are various theories on the impact of certain events and patterns that have emerged throughout history. There are a great number of theories that exist as how history has developed in regards to a pattern: some see a steady march towards progress, while others see an endless cycle. These theories have come about as the result of fruitful study, yet have a fundamental weakness. The fact that there exist so many different interpretations of human history calls into question the validity of these “patterns.” There is a fundamental concept at work here that must not be misunderstood. Each historian coming up with these patterns is influenced by their respective specializations; a historian studying societies throughout the later part of the 19th century and the 20th century may remark that history shows an un ending march towards progress, yet there have been numerous halts to “progress” and soviet historians said their state and communism was the culmination and eventual objective of this pattern, and yet the Soviet Union fell over 20 years ago.
This is also true in the study of the social sciences. Every study that is done has the purpose of finding a pattern among the behavior of humans, and this quote is very relevant to these studies, as the purpose of these studies; psychology, anthropology, etc. aim to discover patterns in the “chaos of events” that society or the human mind is. The fact that the studies aim to discover patterns immediately make the above quote very relevant to the social studies.


For example, a social scientist studying the correlation between two social factors is looking for a pattern between the two. The social sciences almost expressly follow this quote, as they are always looking for a pattern or connection in events, even though sometimes there just isn’t a pattern.


The basis of this quote is contained within both of these areas of knowledge, and the idea of patterns in the chaos of events is inherent in both. History tends to focus exclusively on the past, while social sciences focus both on past and present patterns. In both there is the study of the effect of one event on another, the relation between events, and a pattern in the occurrences of something, whether it be a society or a battle.


In History, the investigation of a subject is limited in the way knowledge is gained, but all four ways of knowing are relevant in this area, as well as in the social sciences. In both History and the Social Sciences, information is conveyed and gained through Perception, Reason, Language and Emotion. For example, in history, I have used Perception to perceive the paper, Language to read it and Reason to analyze it. Sometimes you even use Emotion to gain knowledge, when someone’s done something particularly bad or something bad’s happened. The same process occurs in the social sciences.