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Is it only through the use of logic and of precise, careful measurement can we indicate how far we have progressed or regressed? I agree that logic and measurement do provide us many instrumentalities to make criteria of our advancement. Nevertheless, we should not deny that there are still many aspects that logic and measurement could provide us little, if any, guidance.
First, let's consider individuals. Many of our advancement or retreat could be gain by using the method of logic and measurement. In career, our advancement could be regarded as the pay raise and promotion, while demotion and even dismissal could be a signal of regress. In fact, the measurement gives us the data of how much our pay raises or how many steps we have ascended the social ladder, and the logic could help us deduce from these data whether we are making any progress or not. In everyday life, how could we measure the condition of our health? One year ago, I could only run no more than 3000 meters, yet now I could cover the length as much as 20 kilometers. That might serves as an evidence of improvement of body condition. We measure length with scientific tool, and get the conclusion by comparing the data, which is a process of logic.
Second, let's consider society. What has made us believe our life condition is getting better? With data and logic, we can say the evidence of persuasive value. For example, we acknowledge our living condition have meliorated a lot by judging that some decades ago, common citizens were living in the dark and humid apartment, while nowadays it is normal for them to reside in skyscraper with central air conditioners and elevators; abundant of commodities could prove that the economic conditions is improving by comparing with the property we suffered years ago. To the contrary, when we are told social conditions improve without the support of concrete data or logic deduction, all this evidence would be nonsense--- it is hard to convince other people the betterment of our life by only saying that “our life is improving”.
However, not all aspects of our progress and regress could be measured by methods mentioned above. In personal life, it is hard to measure pain or discomfort by scientific tools or logic. In fact, things so abstract as feelings and emotions could not be indicated by our material methods. we cannot say how many or how much pain we are suffering by careful measurement or logic, any endeavor of trying to knowledge the data of pain is weird. Meanwhile, it is also unwise to measure the status of our emotion: neither can we set ranks nor define criteria by which measurement could be carried out. In society as a whole, is it possible that our democracy level could be indicated by enormous data? Isn't it groundless for us to resort to scientific tools when we want to know how far we have advanced or retreat in humanity, or can we say how more freedoms we are enjoying than our forebears 100 years ago? Furthermore, logic in these situations could also help little: without necessary support of data, it is difficult for it to get any conclusion.
In sum, as the reasons listed above, I believe resorting to logic and measurement could give us much guidance of judging our progress or regress in many respect, while we could not blind to see that in some other aspects, which mainly depends on individuals' interests, feelings, values and ranks, these method could do little to help. |
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