Examine the ways empirical evidence should be used to make progress in different areas of knowledge.

Empirical evidence is useful to help determine which areas of knowledge are more accurate while understanding different situations in life. Although all areas of knowledge need empirical evidence to maintain itself as a non-fictional idea, but some are more abstract and it’s very difficult to obtain empirical evidence that support them, such as the arts or ethics. Also other areas of knowledge are very easy to prove because they are physical and can be proven with reason for example math, natural sciences or history.
Ethics is not a reliable source of empirical evidence because it’s up to debate. This area of knowledge brings up the question of what’s right and what’s wrong that has been hunting the humanity since they’ve developed reason. A good example of empirical evidence regarding ethics is for example Pope Benedict the XVI who recently said in Africa that “Condoms make the Aids crisis worse”. This statement is up to debate, half of the world just laughed at him due to the lack of reason this argument has, but the ignorant kids in Africa that heard this straight from the popes mouth or the religious fanatics that believe every single word that the pope says without questioning actually believe now that condoms expand the Aids crisis which makes no sense.
History is very dependent on empirical evidence; in this case empirical evidence would be documents, proclamations, maps, ancient books which determine what we know nowadays about our past. For example we all know that the attack on Pearl Harbor was true because there are documents that support it, pictures, and news paper articles and because of this event that we can then understand why United States entered the Second World War or the atomic bomb at Hiroshima. Mathematics is also very dependent in empirical evidence. Math is an exact science that was developed through reason and necessity. It is mainly the principal of evolution because it develops the mind and organizes the society because mathematical processes are normally used for real life issues. Math is needed for example in a research about the average of people that is bold in one city or even in music, for counting the periods or times, generating scales, harmonies or even determining the frequency of the sound. Math is in our everyday life and it’s a generator of empirical evidence.
Natural sciences are completely based on empirical evidence, actually all sciences do, science only declares true investigations that are fully thought thru, that’s why there are theories and facts. A theory for an idea is the step before becoming a fact; it’s an abstract thought that is very difficult to prove right but that makes sense. For example the Big Bang Theory, we don’t know if it’s true but it’s the most reasonable way to explain the creation of the universe, although there are current investigations that are trying to make this theory a fact like the CERN, a giant particle accelerator that is trying to prove that by crashing particles at a really high speed, matter can be created. A scientific fact is something that has been proven right from many points of view making it empirical evidence, for example that the all living organisms are composed of cells. By many years of studying how the animal body works, scientists have concluded that the living organisms are composed of cells. This is has been proven through the observation of the body by microscopes and other scientific examinations.
The arts are very connected to history because artists base a lot of their work to events in their life. Also even a painting or a song can be a historic reference for an event. But also these events must pass through the author’s mind that might corrupt the final piece of art with the author’s opinion or interpretation of the event. For example Picasso’s Guernica, this painting relates the story of the tragic attacks on the town of Guernica in Spain. This painting helps people understand the pain of the people that where attacked and the feeling of Picasso with this event. This painting also make this battle transcend in time because if this painting wasn’t made and if it was not as important as it is now, this battle probably would fade out in time along with many other battles. Music can also tell stories, legends, myths that are told from generation to generation that can probably transform a simple legend into empirical evidence that has transcended through years. For example in Colombia the legend of “El Dorado”, many years back in the times of the indigenes people, this was thought to be an empirical evidence, nowadays we conceder this as a legend that has nothing to do with the truth and its completely factionary but people at that time weren’t as reasonable as we are nowadays so they where easy to fool.
Human sciences, as well as the natural sciences, study the human being but in this case specially the human behavior which is impossible to determine. In this area of knowledge empirical evidence is almost impossible to get because every human is different, everyone is born and grown in a different environment and that makes us all different. One fact in this area of knowledge is that the environment in which we grow affects our personality. For example an Indian for the fact that he was born in India, therefore he is a Hindu and this affects his personality but if he was born in ancient Greece you would believe in Zeus and probably if that person was a man he would fight in war. We are affected by our environment but apart from this it’s impossible to get any facts from the study of the human because we are all different. If we would be studying Ants, there might be a more variety of facts because ants are all the same between themselves and they have a lot of common behaviors that can lead to facts.
In conclusion some areas of knowing are more susceptive to empirical evidence but some are not as dependent from it. All areas of knowing depend on reason that is the essence of human beings and the only way to reach empirical evidence. Reasonable thinking is the reason the human species is so developed but an appropriate reasonable thinking is not a quality of every person, only people who study and develop his brain can think in an appropriate way.