GRE Issue: "If people disregard the great works of the past, it is because these works no longer answer the needs of the present."

My Response Essay:

The word "great" is a subjective one, and its definition itself may change over time. Thus, something which is regarded as great at one point of time may simple cease to be so at another point with no obvious reason. In fact, in some cases even during one period of history, one set of people may regard a piece of work or an achievement as great whereas others might not concur to do do so. Besides, the works of past may turn out to be based on wrong premises or may be disproved using practical observations.

History informs us that the widely accepted definition of greatness has been different at different epochs of the past. For example, in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, nationalistic sentiments were at peak, and "great" nations were supposed to be those which possessed immense land and influence. It was the result of such ill-conceiv`ed notions that the wide-spread destruction wook place in the form of World Wars I and II. Similarly, during those times, equality had a very restricted definition. Consequently, slavery and women's oppressed state were ragged sores of society. In contrast, in present age, greatness is ascribed to those nations which espouse the principle of equality and justice. Certainly Hitler's atrocities in the quest of power and the traditions mocking at the atrophy of humanity and justice will not be regarded as great by today's society. But it is not because these deeds do not answer the needs of present age -- rather it is because the definition of greatness itself has changed.

Another reason why the works of the past which were considered great by the then society are not considered so by present society lies in the basic human desire to acquire more and more knowledge, and to correct our past misconceptions. For example, Aristotle, in his time and even for a long time after his death, was regarded as the single authority on any area of philosophical inquiry. So much so that Galileo, having proved the heliocentric nature of our universe, was tortured by conservative authorities and was forced to recant his propositions as these were in direct opposition to Aristotalian principles. But now, as everyone knows Sun is the centre of universe and our Earth does revolve around Sun. Thus it will not be prudent to regard Arsistotle's work in this matter as great. And the reason for doing so is again not because it does not address the needs of present but because it has been proven that the previous reasoning was fundamentally flawed.



Let us consider one more example of why some works of the past might be disregarded. Some pacifists of present era are of the view that the advent of atomic energy and nuclear energy has resulted in more destruction than benefit for human society, and hence they do not regard such inventions of marvelous sources of energy as great. But is the cause of this disregard that these achievements do not address present society's needs? Rather, common sense tells us that it has been due to misuse of these inventions by human beings. In fact, we have highly exploited other natural resources for fulfilling our never-ending energy needs, and this is the time when we desperately need alternative and efficient sources of energy like nuclear energy.

Time and again it has happened that a work or an achievement that was perceived to be great at one time eventually turned out to be the cause of wide-spread disaster or an extreme of human folly. There have been several reasons for this turnaround like an advent of better proof for the opposite argument or a misuse of that supposedly great work. Human beings are complex and so are their deeds and perceptions. Hence it is not warranted to categorically declare that such rebuttals of "great" works over time happen because the latter do not target the current needs.

The above is an unrated response. For 6 scored essays, see Essays scored 6 by ETS's E-rater

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