ISSUE153 八九点钟的小组

那西UID: 2342905

TOPIC: ISSUE153 - "Students should bring a certain skepticism to whatever they study. They should question what they are taught instead of accepting it passively."

I strongly agree with the speaker's view that skepticism is quite indispensable in process of study.However,unconditional skepticism is inadvisable.We must be aware of the essence of skepticism so that we would not stumble into the wrong road of endless suspicion.

A nation lacking of skepticism may breed the evil fruit of totalitarianism,just like the people of Germany before the World War Two who hastily accept Adolf Hitler's instigation without suspicion.However,people seem not learn a lesson from the history.In the year of 1962,California,a high school history teacher named Ron Jones tried to explain the form of "Third Reich" to his class through an experiment:the students were asked to abide by his strict regulations for a few days.Students really enjoyed the experiment because it felt great to be in a powerful collective:no need to question,all the things they had to do was to obey.But the experiment went nearly irremediable in the end,those docile students' belief in their leader,and their excessive loyalty to the collective made them disregard the benefits of others and they would not feel guilty if they hurt others in the name of the protection of collective interests,in a word, they became rather great Nazis.It can be seen from this experiment that the potential tendency of taking obedience over skepticism as the former is much easier is intensely dangerous,once this tendency is utilized to approach some miscreant purpose,people are easy to back into ignorance,cruelty and depravity.

Skepticism not only benefit us from helping keep our own value,away from being enslaved of the others' minds,but also benefit all aspects of our society.The doubt that whether the age of steam is the final shape of human society promotes the coming of electric age;the suspicion of geocentric theory helps people know the universe's true colours;the disbelief of classicalism gives birth to modernism.Consequently,in our education,we shall never ignore the importance of skepticism because our society progress from that point.

The speaker is clearly in agreement with Descarte of hyperbolical doubt: Descarte rejects any ideas that can be doubted, and then reestablishes them in order to acquire a firm foundation for genuine knowledge.This theory supports the fundamental set of the principle of scientific researches which we still use today and help us become thorough thinkers.But there is a tiny difference between Descarte's theory and the speaker's assertion:Descarte rejects any ideas while the speaker calls on the students to doubt whatever they are study.What we are taught may inclusive of facts and ideas,what we should doubt is ideas,but facts should not be doubted.One of the main purposes of education is to let the students know how to tell facts apart from ideas,then students are able to question the ideas based on the facts,then they make detailed observation,raise their own assumptions and try to confirm it.Only in that way can we truly understand what we are taught,which cannot be obtained by passive accepting.

In sum,the aim of skepticism is a method of finding truth,not the destination.Therefore,students should be encouraged to bring a certain skepticism to the what they are taught with an exception of the unassailable facts.