issue41 【0710G-HIT坚持交作业小组第十三次作业】SavileRow

SavileRowUID: 2284947

题目：ISSUE41 - "Such nonmainstream areas of inquiry as astrology, fortune-telling, and psychic and paranormal pursuits play a vital role in society by satisfying human needs that are not addressed by mainstream science."
字数：543         用时：00:45:00          日期：2007-8-13 10:13:59

提纲：
1 同意看法
2 非主流领域更有乐趣更贴近日常生活
3 非主流研究的吸引力在于违反直觉的可能性（举了魔术的例子不知道是不是恰当）
4 非主流研究给人们以认同感
5 结尾

第一次痛苦的限时，写得手忙脚乱，质量也比以前的差很多

The speaker asserts that those nonmainstream areas of inquiry are vital to society because they satisfy human needs which mainstream science cannot .I completely agree with the speaker. As I see it, it is those needs which cannot be achieved through science that make nonmainstream inquiry prevalent .And my arguments are as following:

Firstly, nonmainstream areas of inquiry are fun and more closely-related to people’s everyday life .Compared to science, nonmainstream areas of inquiry are more “mundane". They could be seen as an elementary school teacher--humorous, friendly. Science, on the other hand, is more like a college professor--solemn, sensible and rigid. Naturally, the nonmainstream inquiry is more appealing to average people who are more like pupils. Take astrology for example. For a lot of astrology fans, they begin their every morning with listening to radio or surfing on internet for the astrologic daily tips. Those tips aiming at different constellations would tell them what color is their lucky color and which number would bring them good luck. Besides, those tips would tell them what they should be aware of about relationship and work. The astrology fans, even they are not firm believers, will do everything under the instructions of astrologic tips, because simply following this guidance seems to guarantee a good day for them. In addition, the psychological inference that they will have a nice and safe day gained from astrologic tips just makes their day. The fun-providing function like astrology tips mentioned above is due to the "not so serious" nature of nonmainstream inquiry. Thus, science whose nature is seriousness-oriented is not able to rival nonmainstream inquiry in this sense.

Secondly, the attraction of nonmainstream inquiry lies in its counter intuitive possibility. And magic, another form combining art and impossibilities makes a compelling example. We are all taught in school that a human body is not suitable for flying because of its weight of bone structures and its lack of powerful muscles like birds. However, when hundreds of millions of audience witnessed David Copperfield fly in the air on his magic show, we were convinced that human beings are actually capable to move like birds. No matter what theory is behind the magic, as long as it is unknown, the magic of magic itself will never dim out. People's curiosity towards unknown and seemly impossible things drives them close to nonmainstream inquiry. Science, in people's eyes, is too reasonable and makes sense too much that it can not satisfy human beings' instincts of curiosity.

Thirdly, nonmainstream inquiry provides people identities which science never targets at or works on. The importance of identity could be drawn from psychologist Maslow's hierarchy theory of human needs. He categorizes human needs into five levels considering their potency. And the diagram represented those needs is a pyramid with more basic needs at the bottom. According to the theory, only when the lower needs are met, human beings are qualified to purchase the needs on higher level. When basic physiological needs and safety that are the bottom two needs in the pyramid are satisfied, identity which is included in the third level need " love and attachment” will be people's pressing pursuit. Nonmainstream inquiry especially astrology offers people identities in way of defining different groups by constellations. Consequently, this function which is beyond the ability range of science renders nonmainstream inquiry vital.

In sum, nonmainstream inquiry completes science. And that is why nonmainstream areas of inquiry become so important. The greatness of nonmainstream inquiry is not how powerful it is, after all, it remains nonmainstream, but the retouching it brings to people's science-dominated life.

[ 本帖最后由 SavileRow 于 2007-8-13 19:09 编辑 ]

doris_gxcUID: 2370933

Secondly, the attraction of nonmainstream inquiry lies in its counter intuitive possibility. And magic, another（？） form（of...） combining art and impossibilities makes a compelling example. We are all taught in school that a human body is not suitable for flying because of its weight of bone structures(structure of bones) and its lack of powerful muscles like birds. However, when hundreds of millions of audience witnessed David Copperfield fly in the air on his magic show, we were convinced that human beings are actually capable to move(soar) like birds. No matter what theory is behind the magic(behind就是主流科学--物理), as long as it is unknown, the magic of magic itself will never dim out. People's curiosity towards unknown and seemly impossible things drives them close to nonmainstream inquiry. Science, in people's eyes, is too reasonable and makes sense too much that it can not satisfy human beings' instincts of curiosity.（肯定是写到这里lz自己也糊涂了……）

Thirdly, nonmainstream inquiry provides people identities which science never targets at or works on. The importance of identity could be drawn from psychologist Maslow's hierarchy theory of human needs. He categorizes human needs into five levels considering their potency. And the diagram represented those needs is a pyramid with more basic needs at the bottom. According to the theory, only when the lower needs are met, human beings are qualified to purchase the needs on higher level. When basic physiological needs and safety that are the bottom two needs in the pyramid are satisfied, identity which is included in the third level need " love and attachment” will be people's pressing pursuit. Nonmainstream inquiry especially astrology offers people identities in way of defining different groups by constellations. Consequently, this function which is beyond the ability range of science renders nonmainstream inquiry vital.（没懂……）

In sum, nonmainstream inquiry completes science. And that is why nonmainstream areas of inquiry become so important. The greatness of nonmainstream inquiry is not how powerful it is, after all, it remains nonmainstream, but the retouching it brings to people's science-dominated life.

第一段写的挺好的，魔术的话，我觉得也是娱乐大众用的。
用主流科学解释魔术的原理之后，就失去了娱乐大众的作用的了。

啊，不过其实主流科学也有娱乐作用……

还有就是，非主流是经验的（算命不就是算多了就能算准了），而主流科学才会比较违背直觉。