What is it about theories in the human sciences and natural sciences that makes them convincing? (Theory of Knowledge)

There are several understandings and different ways people can categorize sciences into two groups , Human and natural science. According to my idea and knowledge of science, I divide this into two groups with Natural science consisting of Physics, Chemistry, Biology , and Astronomy are all related to the universe we live in.  Human sciences as the word itself says is related to the behavior, activities , history and experience related to human beings, these can be categorized into social sciences and humanities consisting of History, Economics ,Geography , and sociology .  It is crucial for everyone to understand the importance of both these sciences as it’s the understanding of  both these sciences which makes our place a better place to live in .  

What is a theory?  A theory has a expected hypothesis which is proved through the evidences and research based on the ideas. It’s the techniques in the sciences which are crucial for the success with a methodology and theory which can be a quantitative design or qualitative with a quality research and backing it up with evidences.  It’s the success and research with theories that has made us all believe in what the scientist say and its that success that has lead to  the development in technology with things related to humans in specific and nature outside us and the way it behaves.   The way in which the theories have been formed and concluded itself is a form of a knowledge issue. Over the years there have been several theories in both the categories which have been hugely supported and successful  which have been believed due to several reason.

 According to me there are several factors and reasons for a theory being accepted due to the several ways of knowing  ,  and the way it is understood related to several methods of thinking and knowledge such as : 1) Humans always having a standard and level of acceptance in which everything has to be agreed mutually by everyone which determines the quality of the statement or theory.  2)  A theory from a well known established scientist always gives a human being a pre- understanding  that it can be trusted and believed which is the natural thinking and behavior of human beings. 3) A virtual incident or a disaster which has had a huge affect on humans in the past will be accepted with a theory relating to it which does make sense . 4) Evidence and a key example and a proof is the biggest factor that makes unknown belief true and convincing.  More regarding to natural science , it’s the procedure and format followed to conduct a experiment in a organized way that also makes it convincing with the format and theory consisting of a Hypothesis, background, Data collection,  analyzing  with the final conclusion and evaluation .   

The method for human science in comparison doesn’t have any method common , uniform and followed by many. For any theory or a assumptions its people having one point of view and another person automatically having counter claims with practical evidences from real life situations, examples and experiences. Science itself in the text book tries to show that everything researched is convincing due to several reasons such as it having a blend of logic and imagination,  researched over several years, it being subject to change,  to identify and avoid bias,  and predict with evidence.

There are several theories over the years which have been hugely true and convincing in both natural sciences and human sciences. There are two main theories which I would like to talk about . The reasons for choosing these examples is the fact that both these theories at first were hugely criticized and as time went on due to evidences, development and technology , the theory was convinced and believed.  First the theory of Plate tectonics by Alfered Wegener  in natural science and another being a huge worldwide controversy which can be debatable is the poverty line set by each countries to indicate the economic disadvantage and assistance required for each country in the human sciences , ( in specific to India).

One natural science theory which completely made all of us understand the phenomena  of earths plates was  regarding the movement of plates and continental drifts  by Alfred  Wegener  in 1915 which gave the start to the theory of  plate tectonics .  This was one theory which had many disputes and different point of views and it required the reality evidences to really convince everyone that he was true.  Alfred was the few to say in the early 19^th century that the different shapes of the continents clearly show that they were once close stuck together and earths surface changed over time. Many believed due to the earths natural cycle of heating and cooling that caused the thermal expansion and contraction to cause the separation and far distance of each continent.  During that time everyone had their own views with some following Alfred that continental drift is the reason and others following the fact that it was thermal expansion being the reason  with everyone confused due to lack of awareness and poor knowledge of the issue.  This dispute went on for decades until the moment  when the magnetic field showed that the north pole shifted.  With the north pole axis being fixed and static always , it gave no other idea other then the fact that Alfred Wegener was true. It was one evidence that strongly supported his saying and theory.  In the natural way of thinking of humans , one evidence and example cannot convince such a huge relevant theory regarding the plate movements. 

 It was another incident during the world war 2 where seismometers were installed on the country borders when they discovered the plate edges and the fact that earthquakes and volcanoes are the main cause of shifting. In another incident, it was the finding of minerals and other material that they found the earths crust having stripes which could have been no other way other then the shifting of the lithosphere.  Over the period of time it was several evidences over the period of time regarding the same theory that convinced the people more to the largest extent that it is true . In almost  every natural science theory whether its related to gravity or plates,  it’s the exploration and normal behavior which somehow leads to new findings  which causes us to link to natural phenomenon’s around us with the statement, awareness, knowledge , trust , acceptance standard and  evidence in reality.  

An example of one knowledge issue having several problems  and understanding in the field of Economics in the  human sciences is the poverty line set by countries. Over the past few months in India , there has been huge debate relating to the fact if a person earns more then 32rupees a day, he is considered to be above poverty line?  This means that 1000 rupees a month is a very good standard according to the country.  The government in 2005 showed that only 42% of India’s population is  below poverty line with the prediction of 2015 being 22%. With this amount it is impossible to manage with such a less amount with the huge soaring prices of basic resources such as rice itself costing 30 rupees  per  kg minimum  , vegetables and Fuel. With such a low rate, the whole aim of this is to come up with the statistics to show India at the world economic level that it is doing very well with very less percentage of the population below poverty. 

There is no doubt that India is a developing country with china with great progress in the worldwide economy, the whole data and claim is exaggerated to a huge extent at the cost of the poor people lacking the basic resources  as depending on the rate of poverty , the amount of funds is received.  It is one failure in understanding of the knowledge issue affecting the whole country as the funds go to the people of the agriculture sector, rural education sector, industrial sector and food. There’s clearly no one uniform and agreed official measurement of the poverty line by the government of India. Even the local  National commission for enterprises in the unauthorized sector  after the research show that more then 77% of Indians live on less then 20 rupees per day  and other committee reports showing that its  50% Indians living poverty line.  

Being an eyewitness in the situation and reality of the country,  the statistics put up by the government no where match the actual state of the country.   The reasons for this statement and statistics put up by the government not convincing is the fact that there are conflicting  knowledge, people with different backgrounds, perspective of the common man and the government ,  peoples trust on the government in terms of performance and history   and  lack of evidence that there’s very less poverty .

Its never a fact that we  have to agree to a theory or a statement regarding science and its up to us based on the science philosophy, background, process of research , evidence with the combination of human knowledge, awareness , and different point of views. Its the  common mutual understanding whether to agree or not to a theory  is to help us understand the operations  and behavior  of the world around us with several factors  continuing to convince us  as the years go on as ,research and discovery will never end in the field of human and natural science .