Issue138 toheart第n次作业

leongfishUID: 2176854

TOPIC：ISSUE 138 - "Only through mistakes can there be discovery or progress."
WORDS：447          TIME：0:41:45          DATE：2006-2-6

It is commonly believed that only through mistakes can we make discovery and progress. There are two kinds of explanations for this belief: first, the new progress is based on the former mistakes; or the process of achieving success is full of difficulties. However, in my opinion, there are certain situations when we could make discovery or progress without the existence of mistakes.

First, almost all the discoveries in human civilization originate from the flaws in our ancestors' ideas. Since our database of knowledge is far larger than before, we can see a problem in different angles or in deeper views, then we may find the incompleteness or even mistakes in former ideas: the quantum mechanics is based on the shortage of the Newton mechanics which mistakenly treats the microcosmos and macroscale with the same essence; the appearance of democracy is due to the innate limitation of autarchy; the market economy is first brought up to solve the problems caused by feudal peasant economy. Also, we can not deny that there are probably certain mistakes in our current so-called truth which need to be corrected by our future generation—and the human civilization is developing in such a process.

Additionally, to make discovery or progress, we have to endure the agony of making mistakes. Nobody, even the most talented ones, can not ensure that he/she is able to achieve success very smoothly, due to the limitation of human's faculty. All we have to do during the efforts towards our goals is to try to recognize the mistakes we have made, to solve them and to avoid them in our future attempts. The instance of Edison might best prove this view: to invent the electric light, Edison had tried thousands of materials for the filament in the bulb including thread, bamboo fibers and even hairs. Among those wrongly or even ridiculously used materials had he finally found the most appropriate material.

However, in certain situations, lacking of former errors and experience, we have to set up an idea by our own imagination and creativity . For instance, when De Broglie put up his idea of the "substance waves", his only prerequisite is his brave hypothesis. Also in the field of art, a new method of expression is always based on the passion and creativity of the artists. In addition, very seldom, no error is committed before the discovery is brought out, just like the discovery of many chemical medicines when chance plays an important role. But we cannot conclude that no extra effort is needed here.

In sum, it is true that mistakes lead to discovery and progress, although this does not always happen.