TOPIC: 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."
WORDS: 639 TIME: 00:45:00 DATE: 2008-8-3 13:15:14
Should society concern whether scholars and researcher's work can make a contribution to it or let them pursue their individual interests no matter how unusual or idiosyncratic those interests may seem? Though scholars and researchers carry some obligations of contributing to the whole society, people tend to put heavy burden on them and overlook the importance of allowing them to pursue their individual interests, which I don’t recommend.
Admittedly, human beings have been suffering from the emergence of various unprecedented threats due to the fast development of technology and industry, which needs lots of scholars and researchers to pay attention to. And some courses and researches are specially created for finding the methods of solving these problems and threats. Due to these pressing social problems people tend to care more about these problems and expect the scholars and researchers to achieve something and contribute to the society. Actually we have been seeing numbers of scholars and researchers commit themselves to the welfare of human beings and made great achievements. History is replete with such examples that scholars and researchers' work contributes a lot to the development of society. Harvey discovered the circulation of blood, which is considered to mark a quantum leap in medicine, and his work benefits the whole society. Fleming stumble upon a kind of mildew that can excrete something to hamper the growing of detrimental bacteria and discover Penicillin, which saved thousands of people's lives during World War Two. These examples illustrate that actually many scholars and researchers' work makes a contribution to the large society.
However, undue emphasis on the contribution that scholars and researchers' work can make would cause detriment to the general and all-round development of academe. Some knowledge and researches of realms that seem contribute a little the society in the short run are vital for our society. Subjects like theoretical physics do not have some pragmatic use for our daily life. Nevertheless, it helps us to explore the known world and have a thorough understanding of the universe. Other subjects like mathematics and philosophy also play important roles in our society in the long run just like theoretic physics.
What's more, scholars and researchers' carrying the responsibility of solving the problems and contribute to the large society does not mean that the interests of them are not important. They are not born for our society but for themselves. A democratic society will not press them to pursue the interests of the society instead of themselves' because the inherent nature of democracy is based on individuals' rights. Pursuing their interests is a kind of contribution to the large society to some extent because it meets the needs of people of the society. This is the base of all other contributions in my opinion.
Besides, people who concerns more about scholars and researchers' contribution to the large society usually neglect the inherent character of unpredictability of researches. Most of work that scholars and researchers engaged in has a vague future with no body knows whether it can benefit the society or not. Considering this problem, the best idea is that leave the scholars and researchers to their own interests. Apart from that, there's a saying that "interest is the best teacher", which tells us the importance of interest in people's daily work and study. Scholars and researchers who pursuing their own interests have great passion and power and never feel bored about what he or she does. That is the reason that why Planck could bring forward the theory of quantum and why Copernicus could challenge the authorities with his theory of heliocentricism.
In the final analysis, though scholars and researchers do have certain responsibility of contributing the large society, it is actually more important for them to pursuing their interests considering the inherent nature of researches and the requirement of a democratic society.
TOPIC: ARGUMENT37 - Woven baskets characterized by a particular distinctive pattern have previously been found only in the immediate vicinity of the prehistoric village of Palea and therefore were believed to have been unique to the Palean people. Recently, however, archaeologists discovered such a "Palean" basket in Lithos, an ancient village across the Brim River from Palea. The Brim River is very deep and broad, and so the ancient Paleans could only have crossed it by boat, but there is no evidence that the Paleans had boats. And boats capable of carrying groups of people and cargo were not developed until thousands of years after the Palean people disappeared. Moreover, Paleans would have had no need to cross the river-the woods around Palea are full of nuts, berries, and small game. It follows that the so-called Palean baskets were not unique to Palea.
