issue 36求拍

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The greatness ofindividuals can be decided only by those who live after them, not by their contemporaries.


Since the criterion of greatness is subjective and restrictedby one’s social identity, the assertion about who decide the greatness ofindividuals is to certain extent ambiguous. However, I believe most peoplewould agree that greatness is tightly associated with the value of individualdeeds or thoughts, whether physically or mentally.


In my opinion, when the greatness of individuals could bedecided depends on when their value mainly lies. For example, we see Bill Gatesas the most talented business mind in our time, because he succeeded bringingus into the era of PC. His value embodied when he was still alive and thus hiscontemporaries recognized his greatness. Besides, Newton’s greatness wasidentified by his contemporaries, because though the efforts of Copernicus, Keplerand Galileo Galilei, the Europe society was ready to accept Newton’s revolutionand his value was realized at his time. They are the representatives whose valuewas admitted in their present age and thus thought to be great when they werestill alive.


However, many of the great were not so lucky as them,especially in the areas like philosophy, art and mathematics. The ideas ofgreat philosophers often deviated from the present social norm, and were too abstruseto understand. Their influence on society was gradual, and only after a longtime they would be accepted and seen as great people. Similarly, artachievements are often about the inner concerns of society which theircontemporaries failed to see, and their aesthetic value could only beappreciated by latter generations. Mathematics, as an application of abstractlogic, faces the same problem, too. The conclusions in math, though uselesswhen they were initially introduced, may become powerful tools centuries later.Apollonius, an ancient Greek mathematician, was the first to research theproperties of conic section. Though his work was overlooked by hiscontemporaries and for nearly two thousand years no one continued his research,when Kepler applied his conclusions to the solar system, he succeeded inexplaining the motion of celestial bodies.


We must notice that the recognition of greatness doesn’tequal a thorough evaluation of it. The contemporary value of the great may beundermined by later harms of their own success, in the way known as the path dependence.Still take Newton as an example. His achievements in classic physics became theresistance of modern theories like the theory of relativity and quantummechanics. Today, while most people still regard Newton one of the greatestphysicians, the admiration of him is inevitably less than that in 19thcentury. Confucius, as another instance, became the ruler of ideology in Chinaabout 300 years after his death. Though his doctrine prospered ancient China,it gradually degenerated into a method of thought control and resulted in itsfailure in recent centuries.


The speaker may think the above argument leads to hisassertion because the contemporary judgment is impossible to take account ofthe later harms and therefore incorrect. But this sophistry actually says thegreatness of individuals cannot be decided until the end of human being. Theabsurd conclusion overlooked the fact that though the greatness of anindividual recognized by his/her contemporaries may not be precise, latergenerations would basically agree with their judgment, by admitting the limitof individual insight.


In a sum, I propose that individual greatness is becauseof the value to his/her contemporaries or later generations, which determineswhen his/her greatness will be decided. In many cases, the individual greatnesscould be admitted when he/she was alive while others couldn’t. Though the finalevaluation of these historic figures might be updated by time, their greatnesswouldn’t fade.