“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.”
According to the title statement, the speaker asserts that scholars and researchers should not be concerned with whether their work makes a contribution to the larger society and just pursue their individual interests. As in my opinion, this assert must be considered in two facets – scholars and researchers who works in academic field and those who works in utilize field, and, if doing so, it may gained a total different conclusion.
G.H.Hardy, a prominent English mathematician, preferred his work to be considering “pure mathematics”. He made several famous statements, one of the most famous statements is”I have never done anything ‘useful’. No discovery of mine has made, or is likely to make, directly or indirectly, for good or ill, the least difference to the amenity of the world.” However, aside from formulating the Hardy-Weinberg principle in population genetics, his famous work on integer partitions with his collaborator Ramanujan, known as the Hardy-Ramanujan asymptotic formula, has been widely applied in physics to find quantum partition functions of atomic nuclei and to derive thermodynamic functions of non-interacting Bose-Einstein systems. Though Hardy wanted his maths to be “pure” and devoid of any application, much of his work has found applications in other branches of science.
According to the example above, we can conclude that those who work in academic fields may have the freedom just to pursue their individual interests. In fact, in academic field, most theory is put forward without the intent that these theories aim at makes a contribution to the larger society. ‘What is the use of an infant? ” Dr. Franklin says to such.
However, in contrast, the scholars and researchers who works for the utilize field has not hold the freedom. They must concern what the outer society need and if the work they do has the practicality, and if not, the research work is useless.
For example, during the World War II, many scholars and researchers took part in a project named “The Manhattan project”, which is now be known as to develop atomic weapon. Those who attend the project is work for the U.S military, and their work is to follow the reasonable step to design a A-bomb. Everybody must be concerned with whether their work makes a contribution to the project. In fact, during war time, each science project must consider its utility, because the Nazi’s scientists were doing the same thing at the same time. If ally’s research dropped behind, they may be in hot water and be in passive phase.
In addition, even in the peacetime, scholars and researchers who work for the corporation may consider their work’s practicability. Obviously, the manager of a develop group must provide its production to the company, not the just the theory. In most companies, even the most talent designer must limit by the rule, they cannot design the production without consider the cost.
There are still several other aspects relevant to the issue under discussion, which, unfortunately, I have no time to explore in detail. But the above-discussed reasons should to a large extent justify my claim that scholars and researchers who works in utilize field must concern with their work whether contribute large society, and those who works for the academic does not.
第一遍写的不小心给弄丢了，又写了第二遍 太累了 肯定很多错误懒得查了 先睡了