In the era of rapid social and technological change which makes the context of the society far too complex and profound for one to learn relevant knowledge all by himself, we tend to learn things from others’ experience and researches directly. When we retrospect to both personal and scientific experience, it is evident that whether we can learn more from people whose ideas we share in common than those whose views contradict with ours depends on the attitude we focus on the process.
Admittedly, discord can sometimes raise stress and therefore cumber progress. For supporting examples one need look no further than our daily experience. Frustration, gloom, and pression, those are words looming in our spirits when someone retorts relentlessly the result we have been working arduously on, making us want to quit.
On the contrary, we take it for granted that we would learn better if there is always a person, one who shares his views with us, keeping encouraging and inspiriting us to insist. However, when we look into those issues, it turns out to be unsound for the basis on which those events rely is that we recoil before discords and inspirited by compliments.
To be more specific, we, noting that contradiction against our views can be a mirror reflecting flaws of ours, and that frustration can be a locomotive promoting progress of ours, can acquire counsel from those whose ideas contradict our own as well. Our everyday experience informs us that though criticisms not only do we discover what aspects we may neglect, for the limit of self-knowledge, we also span our thoughts and bring new ideas into our original conceits. Just as Bacon said, things will have their first or second agitation; if they be not tossed upon the arguments of counsel, they will be bossed upon the waves of fortune.
In addition, agreement from those whose views we share can sometimes confine, if not dominate, the scope of our thoughts, which therefore slips the odds of innovation. Consider, for instance, the discovery of oxygen. In the century when phlogiston theory prevailed—a theory claims that there is some kind of combustible oil named phlogiston in the air—both Priestley and Scheler who share the prevailing theory missed the chance to discover oxygen although they had actually separated it from various materials by different ways. Not until Lavoisier broke the traditional theory and come out with his own theory, did he eventually discover oxygen.
The value of attitude to the views we face is not limited to the sciences. In government and politics, progress usually comes about through dissention and challenge—that is, when people point out the mistake of those in power--….similarly, in the field of civil and criminal law, jurists and legislators who uphold and defend legal precedent must face continual opposition from those who question the fairness and relevance of current laws….
In sum, only by learning from those views we share critically and gaining from those thoughts we contradict receptively can we keep on progressing. There is no escaping the fact that attitude with witch we treat views we confront is pivot to appreciate those issues. After all man has the power to make the world a desert or to make deserts bloom. There is no evil in the views; only in men’s attitude. |
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