Issue 133 Claim: Knowing about the past cannot helppeople to make important decisions today. Reason: The world today is significantlymore complex than it was even in the relatively recent past.
Write a response in which you discuss theextent to which you agree or disagree with the claim and the reason on whichthat claim is based.
Is history of no use helping people to makesound decisions? The answer to such a question cannot be put straightforwardbecause a complicated issue like this involves so many factors that impact ofeach sides should be taken into account. As far as I am concern, I agree withthe reason given that our today world has dramatically changed and become morecomplex than ever before. However, it unnecessarily means the knowledge orinformation passed down from our ancestors make no difference in the process ofour decision-making.
Admittedly, in our nowadays lives, a myriadof new things emerge, including computer , the Internet and so forth. As these technology becomeindispensable to our daily life, many unexpected problems come into being.Despite the merits of computer, the advent of it also brings troubles. For example, increasing number of adolescents getaddicted to computer games, thus less time and energy is devoted to their studywhich should be more important in their lives. Here rises a question. Shouldparents or teachers allow kids to continue work with computer? Since lessinformation we can get from the past when there was no computer, it may be truethat knowing about the past cannot help our educators to answer such a question or make an informeddecision.
However, even though such problems asmentioned above cannot be tackled by directly using the knowledge from history, we are still able toobtain useful information from the experiences of our predecessors.From the events in the history, we may deduce that to force student to keepaway from computer might not be a perfect choice since there were many examplesin the history showing that enforcement always brought unfavorableconsequences. Think about the tyrant in feudal society.forcing peasants to give in heavy taxation always led resist.
Besides, no matter how big difference exists between the world today and that in the past,there still are some questions remain unchanged. Philosophy might be a goodexample to illustrate such an issue. Inthousands of years ago, Aristotle began to seek for answer to the true meaningof human lives. Till today, our philosophers arekeeping considering such a question. Undoubtedly, despite the difference intime or space, the thought of Aristotle has great influence on the theory oftoday philosopher.
In sum, even though our world has beenchanged greatly by the activities of human over thousands of years and it is hard for us to find direct answer from the historyto these newly-emerging problems, the basic principles of dealing withall kinds of things remain unchanged, which always guide people in the right direction. So it is inappropriate to assert thatknowing about the past cannot help people to make important decisions today.
京公网安备11010202008513号 京ICP证101109号 京ICP备12012021号
发表于 2012-4-8 23:28:22
收藏
收藏
楼主
