issue40 *自由女神小组第五次作业* 辛苦了，帮忙柏柏

wonderfullnameUID: 2208232

ISSUE40 "Scholars and researchers should not be concerned with whether their work makes a contribution to the larger society. It is more important that they pursue their individual interests, however unusual or idiosyncratic those interests may seem."
Outline:
1.       The interest plays an important role in a person’s success.
2.       The social elements imply that the researchers and scholars should concern their individual interests.
3.       some exceptions

We tend to judge whether scholars and researchers' work makes a contribution to the larger society including themselves. Admittedly there are a minor part of people who claim that scholars and researchers should concern their individual interests rather than the contribution to the larger society. I preserved this opinion, because either of them is very important.

As is known to all, the interest plays an important role in one person's achievement. Marie Curie, a famous chemist and the founder of Ri, devoted her whole life to the chemical research and gave a huge contribution to the society because from her interest in the chemical. Regardless of how bad the condition was, she could indulge herself in the research for a whole day without drinking or eating. Bile Gates, who took the computer as a part of his life, made the technology take a big stride. When he was a student, he got up frequently in the middle of night and compile the program. He could sit in front of computer for a day with only one bottle of coca cola and a Hamburg, from the memory of his roommate.  Not only in mental aspect but also in physics, people will invest more on what they like to do. So it is self-evident that people can work better if they feel they like the work.

Moreover, most governments, perhaps all the governments judge the public expenditure on the scientific research in terms of the economic benefits the scientific research has brought in and will bring in the future. Politicians remind their voters of the splendid machines our scholars and researchers having invented, the new drugs to relieve the pain of patients, the medical equipments which previously was intractable. At the same time, governments demand of these researchers that cater their researches to "the contribution of society”, that they award a superiority to the research proposals that can be translated into the greatest return on investment in the shortest time. Dependent, as they are, on politicians for huge funding, researchers and scholars have little choice but comply. They have to cease pursuing for their own sakes, creative sprit. Therefore, under such circumstance, scholars and researchers should be encouraged to pursue their individual interests.

Does it mean that scholars and researchers could do their work whatever they want to even though this work appears unusual or idiosyncratic. Apparently, it depends on which kind of unusual or idiosyncratic this work is. If this work is beyond the moral boundary, this unusual one must be restricted, even the scholar or researcher should be punished. However, if some work is regarded as idiosyncratic merely because it is beyond the understanding of the temporary people. It should be supported, because it may acquire some achievement in the future. Such as the work of Van Gogh and so forth.(还有谁的例子，想不起来了)

To sum up, the work to the social contribution and the work for the individual interest, one is like a person’s left hand, the other is the right hand. Neither can be dismissed. They operate each other(相互协调，is it correct?) to get the perfect.

[ 本帖最后由 wonderfullname 于 2007-2-4 20:33 编辑 ]