0910G[North America Flying] Issue153 by haunteagle

haunteagleUID: 2609432

TOPIC: ISSUE153 - "Students should bring a certain skepticism to whatever they study. They should question what they are taught instead of accepting it passively."
WORDS: 604
TIME: 00:45:00
DATE: 2009/7/16 0:17:38

Einstein is a name with magic power that represents authority in some sense. Aristotle is a fantastic name that make images of logics, science and technology spark in our mind. Galileo, Darwin, Planck, all these names are shining in the sky of science and we are familiar with them.

From my point of view, they lay down the fundamentals of science and provide us with abundant mental material on which we can carry out our research. Yet, they also inevitable slow down the present development of science by their discoveries. Faced with their great contributions, sometimes we are hesitating to break the established theory and hence we cannot find new things, new ideas.

Admittedly, as Sir Isaac Newton suggested, we can explore the bound the science because we stand on our ancestors' shoulder. The research of science is continuum; we base our new discovery on an old one. Without Kepler's seemingly superficial laws of universe, Newton cannot deduce his outstanding discovery of Law of Gravity. But for Newton's excellent work, Einstein could have never find the Theory of Relativity. Then Planck the Quantum and Turing the Computer. We can even date back to Aristotle's discovery, though is regarded as foolish now, that motion is sustained by force. The predecessors' discoveries provide innumerable pieces of material to support our present development.

However, it is wise to keep a sense of skepticism when we are taught. Breakthrough needs the breakdown of established theories and laws and a sense of skepticism can help us find the flawed points to break. No theory is perfect, for a perfect theory means the end the exploration. Yet it is not so easy to losing part in the theory's logical chain.

Einstein exemplify the word skepticism in his research in the Theory of Relativity. In those days, Maxwell predicted that nothing can travel faster than light and it greatly undermine the old theory of motion which claims velocity can add up. In other words, I run at 5km/per hour and you are 5 km/per hour faster, that you run at 10km/per hour. Yet Maxwell said if you run at the speed of light no one can catch up with you because you are the fastest. They are contradictory but both of them seem correct. Einstein acutely fined the fault in the long-held idea that it regards motion and space as separate yet they are indeed connected. Einstein's talented discovery depends on his skepticism of the most traditional idea and he achieves great success.

Moreover, a kind of skepticism helps develop an independent thought which is widely hold as the most crucial thing in our society. Today, originality to some extent means excellent. One cannot build a new skyscraper according to the blueprint of the White House. Only original idea may lead to creation. Keeping a sense of skepticism in mind when confronted with our predecessors' discovery will help us absorb the marrow to our system of thinking, turn their contribution to our mental stuff which we can use to make our own contributions.

The most distinct difference between tradition Western education system and an Oriental one is that the Westerns are taught to criticize and the Orientals are taught to obey. In this way, the West have created a series of great contribution in history in Industry Revolution and the East keep an conservative policy and fall behind the West in the 18th century.

Accordingly, if our students are taught to be skeptical, we may expect our future builders of society to be creative and make much progress. Yet they should also notice the importance of the heritage of our predecessor for they lay the foundation of thinking.