[issue 127]九月小组8月31日作业

veronicaaaUID: 2217022

TOPIC: ISSUE127 - "Facts are stubborn things. They cannot be altered by our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passions."
WORDS: 508          TIME: 0:45:00          DATE: 2006-8-31

The speaker asserts that facts cannot be changed by any of our subjective emotions, in that they are stubborn and will keep still. I concede that facts cannot be determined only by wishes, inclinations or passions in many cases. However, in my perspective, emotions can sometimes contribute a great deal to the development of situations.

To begin with, facts can hardly be altered with only strong wishes, inclinations or passions. As we know, these subjective emotions remain on the ideal level and is much different from facts in practice. To take the example of astronomy. Hundreds of years ago, people held the belief that earth was the centre of the whole universe, and sun and other planets just moved around us. This theory was mostly concluded on the basis of a simple hope that we, human beings, are the master of the world, and there exits no other creature more civilized than us. But this strong self-esteem has little bearing on what the fact of the universe actually is. Later evidences have broken down the absurd theory and have made us realized how huge the universe is and how tiny we human beings are. Now all of we know that earth moves around sun, and it is just one of the countless planets in universe. In view of this, strong wishes, inclinations or passions sometimes seem pale compare with the stubborn facts that have already exit, even long before the birth of human beings.

On the other hand, subjective conciousness may effect on the objective world around when it is turned into pracitcal effort. The strong desire of human beings can change a lot of things, even far beyond our imagiantion. Because we have intelligence, dilligence and ambition for a better life, we may be very powerful in altering facts around us. On the scientific level,  to take the invention of telephone and internet as an example. In the past, we missed our relatives or friends who were in a long distance with us. We dreamed of getting their news instantly and know about their daily life conviniently. But at that time, we can only contact with each other by correspondence, which took a great deal of time. This pressing need of most people boost the effort and wisdom of scientists. Facts are that dreamy wishes have become true. In the present, telephones and internet can help us reach our friends whenever we want. Accordingly, the power of human beings are great and can change facts into what we want in many ways, as long as these emotions are turned into persistent effort and practice.

In conclusion, I basically agree with the speaker that facts cannot be changed only with strong wishes if these wishes are not turned into arduous effort, and sometimes, the power of us is inherently limited which cannot be changed. While on the other hand, facts can be altered to some extent as long as we devote our emotions to the actual effort in changing and improving things to meet the demand of ourselves.

simplearenUID: 2151889

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