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Issue225 "People often look for similarities, even between very different things, and even when it is unhelpful or harmful to do so. Instead, a thing should be considered on its own terms; we should avoid the tendency to compare it to something else."
I totally agree with the speaker’s statement that people intend to look for similarities between different things, even when it is unhelpful or harmful. However, the speaker concludes too hastily that people should avoid comparing things with each other.
I agree with the speaker insofar as that we tend to find similarities between different things, even when it is unhelpful or harmful to do so. For example, although we all know that sometimes the differences between us and other people can facilitate certain complementary which compensates our shortage, we tend to look for similarities between different people and pick up those ones who share something in common with us to be our friends and spouse. This tendency is derived from our nature to dislike what we find distinct from our character and belief. People living in different environment receive different education and develop various systems of value, ideology and pattern of thinking, thus almost everyone has his or her own perspectives and faith. When people encounter something shows differences, sometimes even contradictions, to their perspectives and values, they tend to reconcile it in order to make it consistent with their point of view by looking for similarities between them, because it is human’s very nature to think that their perspectives and values are always correct and take what they have adapted for granted, and sometimes this nature leads to bias, arrogance, and even ignorance.
I concede the speaker’s statement that people tend to look for similarities between different things, and sometimes this tendency is harmful. Beyond this concession, however, I believe that the speaker goes too far by claiming that: “A thing should be considered on its own terms; we should avoid the tendency to compare it to something else."——especially when it comes to the scientific realm. It is through comparing what we do not understand with what we have already understood that we are keeping moving toward the comprehending of truths. Everything is associated with each other, and a thing can never be considered on its own terms. For example, it is comparing the Maxwell’s equations with classical physics that lead to Einstein’s establishment of the theory of relativity. By comparing the properties of all 83 elements which had been discovered in that time, Mendeleyev published the Periodic Table of the Elements. Both of these two examples aptly illustrate that comparing different things with each other is how we make sense of our world, as well as enriching our knowledge.
To sum up, the speaker is fundamentally correct in the fact that people intend to look for similarities between different things, however, the speaker carries things to extreme by claiming that “A thing should be considered on its own terms; we should avoid the tendency to compare it to something else." |
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