issure103 [victors小组] 第8次作业 by baiyu_2005

baiyu_2005UID: 2255194

The study of history has value only to the extent that it is relevant to our daily lives.

Does the history studying have its value only when it involves our daily lives, as the speaker alleges? As for me, this allegation misses the point in some aspects with which I disagree. Admitted, we really could learn valuable lesson when we look into the life-related history for its abundant experiences provided. Nevertheless it is not the sole function that history makes regarding its equally important value in other area, such as art, and science.

At the fist glance of the problem, it is not a difficult work to find a plethora of evidences to demonstrate that history studying that related to everyday life is a hard-deserving task. Because the experience pool we could gathered from it aid us in dong routine work. We do not need to look further than the fact we have make significant progress in our law system based on it. From the racial movement in 1960s we adjust our law to a higher level in justice, and from the Prohibition experience in 1930s told us it is not a wise way to impose that the law could not tackle all problems, especially in social level, with a force hand. Further study in this area will, to a large extent, provide us more benefit.

However, it is just part of the fact. Actually, when we look on the history in art, here I mean just the pure art, which does not have direct link with our daily life has its own individual value. When we look up on the huge dome mural in the Sistine Chapel Michelangelo Bounaroti painted in 1508, although contribute little to our daily life, it, from other angel, provides us a door to understand renaissance aesthetics which is also a way to release or inspire us mentally. The identical sense also comes from Leonardo da vinci, Claude Monet or even some unknown maestro’s masterpieces.  

Finally, the same goes to the science realm, another area far from our everyday life. No matter the mathematics or the physics improvements in 20th century are all based on innumerous preceding knowledge. It is hard to think so called ‘string’ theory if we know nothing about the quantum mechanics; the relativism would still be an unknown kingdom without any ideas with the Riemann geometry. Even when it comes to the seemingly controversial theory as the Newton and Einstein different physics basic hypothesis, we still could find the inner contact and inheriting. So learning about grand accomplishments of the past in science could enlighten us and furthermore complete nowadays academicians.

In a conclusion, the speaker fails to view other important value that immerse in the history aside from the everyday life related areas, an obvious crucial aspect that history could aid us. Without the understanding the immense function it acts in art and science, or other unmentioned area, it is ungrounded to assert it is the only value of history. So the history studying should be more widely which could render us more benefits than just on rare one facet.

[ 本帖最后由 baiyu_2005 于 2007-6-2 05:57 编辑 ]