- 最后登录
- 2009-7-30
- 在线时间
- 44 小时
- 寄托币
- 1246
- 声望
- 0
- 注册时间
- 2005-1-23
- 阅读权限
- 25
- 帖子
- 0
- 精华
- 0
- 积分
- 645
- UID
- 193190

- 声望
- 0
- 寄托币
- 1246
- 注册时间
- 2005-1-23
- 精华
- 0
- 帖子
- 0
|
Our mankind’s history of thousands of years is filled with numerous giants in all kinds of areas. But who on earth can decide whether the great are great? And what in hell is the criterion of greatness? I believe that a great man is great for his great contributions in his realm. [楼上两高人说要替换great,我也想知道换什么…] 可换的应该不少Therefore, the greatness of individuals can be decided by no matter the contemporaries or the posterities as long as their great contributions are recognized. [明确简洁的开头]
In the first place, the contemporaries can always decide the greatness of a politician because of whose obvious [and easily recognized] contributions [that can be recognized immediately]. [觉得话有点绕喃. ] A great politician might lead the people to fight against aggression, create a great nation, or do significant contributions to the peace of world and so forth. Obviously, all these contributions can be recognized immediately by the people live in the same time. Hence, the contemporaries can decide the greatness of a politician. For supporting examples we need look no further than [U.S. President Washington who built a great democratic nation. Isn't the greatness of President Washington was acknowledged during his lifetime? His people even named their capital with [after] his name. Also consider South Africa's Nelson Mandela, the Nobel Peace Prize winner, we can decide that he is one of the greatest man [men] of the time now. Thus it can be see that in politics, the contributions of the great man can be almost recognized and be decided by their contemporaries.
Moreover, the contemporaries can also decide the greatness of artists by the simple reason that art can be evaluated at face value. Whether in music, visual art or literature, there is nothing to be proved or be disproved and people can judge the artists' contributions easily. The history is replete with such examples that artistic greatness is recognized immediately. Through his symphony, European recognized Beethoven's musical greatness, while the greatness of Picasso was recognized in his prime of life, and Shakespeare became household name even during his lifetime. By these convincing examples, the history tells us that the greatness of individuals can be decided by their contemporaries.
At the same time, when we come to science, thing becomes something [somewhat] complex that whether the contemporaries can decide the greatness of individuals. Sometimes [the] people living in the same time can judge the value of individual's work and decide his greatness. For instance, Thomas Edison is called one of the greatest inventors who patented more than one thousand inventions by his contemporaries and he really is deserved. And we consider Einstein the greatest physical scientist of the twentieth century. But sometimes we can hardly to evaluate the contributions of the scientists. Let us think about Paul Muller who wined the Nobel Prize for the invention of DDT that is the pronoun of environment disaster made by people's misconduct. Half of a century ago, we take him as one of the great scientist and award prize to him, yet today we have to admit that we were wrong. [能这样就否定他的greatness么?其他人一样有责任,他的成就是great的,只是用得过度了,] 其实对于穆勒来说,现在应该没有人称为之伟人啦,虽然贡献不小,但是DDT的伤害更大Because of the complexity of the science, any scientific theory may be disproved tomorrow, thereby demoting the theorist's contributions so that the contemporaries may have wrong decision of the greatness of individuals. [我觉得就算理论以后证明是错的, 科学家在当时的环境下做出那样的成果, 也可能是有阶段性的重要意义的,就算证明某研究方向不可行那也是一种成就嘛] 是有成就,但不至于great,我应该把这个问题点出来In a word, if the contributions of a scientist can be proved immediately by his contemporaries that can decide the greatness, otherwise, only the people who live after him can do it.
In conclusion, it is the standard to decide whether a person is a great one that if he has do significant contributions to his realm, thus whether in politics, art or science, not only the posterity could decide the greatness of individuals, but also the contemporaries by whom if the contributions can be disproved. |
|