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Issue 4 "No field of study can advance significantly unless outsiders bring their knowledge and experience to that field of study."
Syllabus:I agree the argument
1, outsiders could bring a new study area the new perspectives, new methods and new ideas. The development of economics is an example
2, the experience of outsiders from highly developed areas is especial useful to the growing of newly developed subjects. Take the enrollment of doctor training programs in many schools for instance.
3, even for some matured subjects, outsiders’ participation is also necessary. Newton is outsider from immature physics in his day when he invented the theory of calculus.
Nowadays, the strong tendency of interplaying of different academic fields has developed to such an extent that it seems to be almost impossible for any field of study to make a significant advance without the participation of outsiders.
For any initial and creative activity, there is no more other things as important as new perspectives, new methods and new ideas, which are, however, usually provided by outsides—those who come from other study fields. Free from the inhibition of some obsolete doctrines existing in the new study area, outsiders have a great priority in taking advantages of different fields’ power points by introducing some perspectives, methods and ideas from their familiarities into the new field. The outstanding example is the exceptional development of economics since the Second World War. Although nature science such as mathematics was widely applied in economics long time ago, there were still very few economists who could scientifically and systematically use the mathematical methods in their researching. However, this situation was entirely changed with the end of the Second World War when a large group of professional mathematicians entered into this exciting area. Today, equipped with mathematical knowledge, economics has witnessed its most extraordinary development in history: nearly all the classic axioms were reinterpreted in a much more precise and scientific style; new discoveries, new models and new experimental researches were published almost every day, all which were utterly impossible before the participation of the outsiders--mathematicians.
This view that outsiders play a critical part in the advance of any study area is especially true for some newly developed subjects for their matured experience. Just as any proficient workers couldn’t develop his skills as soon as fast without the guidance of superiors, the growth of a newly developed subject will greatly slow down unless the outsiders bring their experiences that have proved be true and useful in matured areas. This is perhaps why undergraduate students from high-developed subjects including mathematics, physics and so on are especially welcome by some newly developed subjects when they apply for the graduate or doctor training programs. They are widely regarded more competent and promising than other students for their learning backgrounds in undergraduate periods. Economics is typically such an example. Many famous schools publicly advocate that they prefer students whose major is mathematics or physics to even those learning economics during the period of undergraduate or graduate. For the same reason, students majoring in economics are also welcome by the departments of history, management or sociology because economics is far more matured than them.
Even for some highly developed sciences, sometimes it is also necessary to assimilate the outsiders’ knowledge. Take the naissance of calculus for example. Among all the sciences mathematics has the longest history and undoubtedly be regarded as the most matured such that nearly all other academic areas must base their foundations on the knowledge of mathematics. However, despite its several-thousand-year history, the modern mathematics must owe its birth to the emergence of Newtonian physics that newly developed in the late seventeenth-century. At the time, puzzled by many problems that couldn’t be resolved with the traditional mathematical means such as the questions about infinite small things appearing in Newton mechanics, Newton, first of all as a physicist, developed a revolutionary mathematical instrument—calculus—to ultimately complete his classic mechanical theory. For its initial achievements in modern mathematics, today, Newton was viewed as the greatest mathematician. However, how many people realize that in the beginning he just was an outsider from immature area in his day. This indicates that, in science, it is very possible that the matured subjects attain its significant advance not by insiders but by outsiders from newly developed areas.
In conclusion, without the participation of outsiders, any academy will inevitably come to an end, which is not only true for the undeveloped subjects but also for the matured ones. (630 words) |
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