issue36 背水一战tongwawaw第四次作业－历史类 新年献上老太太裹脚布之二

tongwawawUID: 2176887

NO.36  历史与人
   "The greatness of individuals can be decided only by those who live after them, not by their contemporaries."   个人的伟大只能通过后来人而不是同时代的人来评价。
=====================================================
科学领域要由后人评价
艺术领域case by case
政治经济领域由同代人评价
＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝
Can only descendants instead of contemporaries recognize and decide the greatness of individuals? The speaker claims so. However, I trend to disagree with the speaker, since evaluation of greatness of individuals is complicated and situations vary among different fields.

First of all, in the field of science, the achievements by great individuals are always recognized by people who live after them. After all, the most brilliant minds usually run much further than the average intellect. History has been fraught with examples. A case in point is Mandel, who discovered principle of heredity. When Mendel's paper about the law of genetics was published in 1865, few researchers paid attention to it, since at his time Darwinism dominated the field of biology. Not until 1908 did scientists rediscovered his paper and realized the importance of Mandel's contribution to genetics, after three researchers working respectively concluded the same result as Mandel's in 1900. He achieved the fame of "Father of Genetics" after his death and his discovery was call Mandel's theory in order to honor him. In this matter, the achievements by scientists need confirming and ensuring by their descendants.

Second, when it comes to art, while most artists receive respect from their contemporaries, a few of them are only recognized in retrospect. This situation might result from the aesthetic diversity varying from different times. Little Mozart, when giving performance in public at the age of 5, was doomed to be favored by the public who considered him a child prodigy. Mark Twain, the famous American writer, won a worldwide audience for his adventure stories of Huckleberry Finn, which is highly praised as the origin of modern American literature. However, some artists, such as Van Gogh, suffered from nonchalance about great works though the unconquerable aesthetic gap and their masterpieces can be only understood by those who are to be born to appreciate them.

Thirdly, in the realm of politics and economy, great people always win the acknowledgment and applause from their contemporaries, since their attainments widely benefit people and society at their times. Examples coming immediately are Roosevelt and Bill Gates. President Roosevelt, who saved the society suffering from Great Depression by promising "New Deal" which directed at alleviating unemployment, reviving banking system and industrial production, supporting agriculture, and so forth, made great achievement in his political career and gained respect from people. In economy field, Bill Gates' exploitation of computer systems and software, from DOS to Windows, from word to excel, finally makes available personal computers which not only change lifestyle of generation but also facility work in the office and invites technological revolution in the every corner of the world. His legends are admired by numerous people; he becomes a perfect parogon for the young; he is the world's wealthiest men, all of which indicate that he enjoy the appreciation from his contemporaries.

In sum, whether the greatness of individuals can be decided by contemporaries of by descendents is not an easy question, and the answer should be based on case-to-case analysis.

bjxyUID: 2751671

写的挺好的，例子很合适。举例子是我最不擅长的。。。