March 22, 2008

AWA-Issue

"Important truths begin as outrageous, or at least uncomfortable, attacks upon the accepted wisdom of the time."

依據我個人的理解,這段Issue是在說新的理論會去挑戰已經被接受很久的舊理論...吧?

The process of science can be concluded with two steps: reduction and replacement. That is to say, complex theories will be integrated into simple ones, and those which are proved false will be replaced by the truth. To myself, the whole process is not only uncomfortable, it is miserable, because it is easier to construct a new theory than to totally abandon an old one, and some new theories are too advanced to be acceped by people.

In the 17th century, Galio proved that the Sun is the center of the solar system rather than the Earth by careful and long-term observations, however, this was opposite to the view of The Catholic Church, who considered the Earth the center of the universe. In the 17th century, the order from The Church was golden rule, and Galio's obeservations, undoubtedly, was attacking the authority of The Church and made them in disgrace. Therefore, the Church gave him severe punishments,  forcing him to confess that his theories were false. This caused great disterbance, but, ultimately The Church had to admit that they were wrong, because what Galio observed are the law of the universe--the truth. 

Similar examples can always be found throgh the history: a person using his theories attacking the theories which were already reconginized by the authorties and the masses.  Fortunately, as new theories continuously replacing the old ones, scientists are more and more willing to accept new theories. Besides the experience of famous scientists, the same situation may happen on a normal graduated student--when their opinion are controdict to their advisor's. For the advisors, it would be uncomfortable to admit their mistake; and for the undergrauates, it would be miserable not to be accepted by their advisor. But I think for a advisor, it is still dissapointed to find out that what they reconginized as truths are a mistake, after all, they spend a great deal of time and effort on them.  

Nevertheless, not all new theories are considered "importent" and "outrageous." Though new theories can cause a big disterbance, there are still importent theories that don't draw any attention. Often, this kind theories are too advanced to be acceped by both the authorties and the others. In the early 20th century, Planck announced famous quantum theory (as his doctoral dissertation), however, quantum theory nearly overthrow classical physics, his advisor even suggested him to rewrite the disseratation. Finally, the theory turned out to be the truth. 

From the argumet above, I can conclued that new theories, no matter it is reconginized important or not, will replace the old ones and be accepted by people ultimately, even if taken a miserable way, as long as it is the truth, 

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Personal Category: AWA Topic: learning / education

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  • 1樓

    1樓搶頭香

    Galileo 對不起我拼錯了

  • 版主 at March 22, 2008 11:57 PM comment
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