- 最后登录
- 2008-11-8
- 在线时间
- 0 小时
- 寄托币
- 432
- 声望
- 0
- 注册时间
- 2005-2-26
- 阅读权限
- 15
- 帖子
- 0
- 精华
- 0
- 积分
- 252
- UID
- 197601

- 声望
- 0
- 寄托币
- 432
- 注册时间
- 2005-2-26
- 精华
- 0
- 帖子
- 0
|
Issue36:
The greatness of individuals can be decided only by those who live after them, not by their contemporaries.
There is a growing concern about the issue that whether the greatness of individuals can be decided only by those who live after them. Some people assert that because of some specific reasons contemporaries can't judge the greatness of individuals objectively. While others argue that contemporaries also can contribute to the judgment of individuals' greatness. As far as i am concerned, the greatness of individuals can be decided only by those who live after them. There are some rational reasons to support my standpoint.
In the first place, contemporaries can't understand the individuals' greatness and importance with their limited knowledge. When we judge a person's importance and contribution, especially to science, we must have enough knowledge of that field and necessary braveness to suspect the existing principles. Otherwise, talking about one's greatness is unfair and unjustified, which even makes tragedies. Galileo is the case in point. Galileo, an italian astronomer, philosopher, who supported Copernicus' Sun-Center principle that the earth and other planets all revolved the sun other than the earth, was punished by the Roman Catholic Church who had little knowledge to understand Galileo and sharply supported the earth-center theory. As a result, Galileo was sentenced to ife-time imprisonment. What surprises us most is that after 350 years, The Roman Catholic Church admitted that its punishment to Galileo was totally wrong.
In the second place, because of emotional factor, contemporaries always make wrong judgment of a person's greatness. Chairman Mao, one of the most heroes in China, who leaded us Chinese to build a brand new country and free Chinese people, was overrated when he was old. It is well known that he initiated the culture revolution in which a lot of good people were punished to death mistakenly. However, at that time nobody in China declared that Mao's action was harmful and dangerous to this society. Because all of the Chinese people in that period admired Mao's contribution in his early time, what is more, a lot of people even looked him as God. In this sense, it is blind and probably impossible for contemporaries to make an objective judgment of a person.
However, people sometimes decide the greatness of individuals in history based on their own interests, which significantly influences the justice and fairness of the judgment. Thus, when judging the contribution of a person in history, people should be objective and do their best to consider every related aspects. Otherwise, the judgment would be useless and puzzling to this society.
In summary, while some people still remain unconvinced by my argument discussed above, it is not difficult to draw a conclusion that contemporaries can not decide the greatness of individuals due to some reasons such as their limited knowledge and emotional factor. Due to the limited time, i can not present all in detail here. Only by the people who live after them, the objective judgment of individuals’ greatness can be given. |
|