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    No Man Is An Island

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    94747
    The document discusses the saying "No man is an island" and argues that it is accurate. It provides several reasons for this: - Individuals rely on others for basic needs like social interaction and progress relies on collective knowledge growth. - Even great thinkers like Copernicus and scientists built on the work of others using tools and knowledge developed by other people. - Major accomplishments require multidisciplinary teamwork, as with the moon landing, so no individual can achieve great things alone. - For humanity to advance, people must build on each other's work and pool resources through collaboration rather than isolating themselves.

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    No Man Is An Island

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    94747
    850 views2 pages
    The document discusses the saying "No man is an island" and argues that it is accurate. It provides several reasons for this: - Individuals rely on others for basic needs like social interaction and progress relies on collective knowledge growth. - Even great thinkers like Copernicus and scientists built on the work of others using tools and knowledge developed by other people. - Major accomplishments require multidisciplinary teamwork, as with the moon landing, so no individual can achieve great things alone. - For humanity to advance, people must build on each other's work and pool resources through collaboration rather than isolating themselves.

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    No Man is an island

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    The document discusses the saying "No man is an island" and argues that it is accurate. It provides several reasons for this: - Individuals rely on others for basic needs like social interaction and progress relies on collective knowledge growth. - Even great thinkers like Copernicus and scientists built on the work of others using tools and knowledge developed by other people. - Major accomplishments require multidisciplinary teamwork, as with the moon landing, so no individual can achieve great things alone. - For humanity to advance, people must build on each other's work and pool resources through collaboration rather than isolating themselves.

    Copyright:

    Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    850 views2 pages

    No Man Is An Island

    Uploaded by

    94747
    The document discusses the saying "No man is an island" and argues that it is accurate. It provides several reasons for this: - Individuals rely on others for basic needs like social interaction and progress relies on collective knowledge growth. - Even great thinkers like Copernicus and scientists built on the work of others using tools and knowledge developed by other people. - Major accomplishments require multidisciplinary teamwork, as with the moon landing, so no individual can achieve great things alone. - For humanity to advance, people must build on each other's work and pool resources through collaboration rather than isolating themselves.

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    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
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    No man is an island. What are your views? The saying No man is an island.

    basically says that a person cannot live without other people. The saying can also be extended to mean that mankind cannot progress or expand knowledge without the effort or support of others. In my opinion, the saying No man is an island is accurate to a large extent. Some may content that a man can be an island. On the surface, it would not be wrong to say that one can exist without other people. Throughout history, there have been cases of shipwrecked individuals who go on to live on an island for five years or more before other people find them.

    On a deeper level, a man can be an island in terms of his thoughts and ideas. For example, Nicolaus Copernicus rethought the field of physics and published his revolutionary model of astronomical heliocentrism, which placed the Sun at the centre of the Universe. Such an idea was not common with the people of that time and even the olden Church threatened to persecute him should he not rescind his research findings. Today, we now know that the Sun is indeed at the centre of our universe. Even though Copernicus ideas were against those of the people of that time, his theory contributed to mans understanding of the world. Therefore, some argue that a man can be an island.

    However, no man is an island because to say that mankind is destined for mere existence is not ambitious or uplifting. In the same vein, no man is an island because only when we build on the achievements of others can we push boundaries of mankinds knowledge. Knowledge is a construct. Man needs to build on the findings of others in order to discover new things. Newton once said, If I have seen farther, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants. Newton developed his laws of movement based on the research findings of previous scientists. It was through evaluating the research findings of previous scientists that he found ways to improve on these theories in order to deepen his understanding of the world and thus make his theories more comprehensive. Similarly, almost two hundred years later, Einstein built on Newtons theories to expand mankinds knowledge. Einstein realized that even though Newtons laws were correct, these laws were only applicable to Earth. Einstein built on Newtons work to create the theory of relativity which took into account the whole Universe. Furthermore, even though Copernicus concepts about the Universe were different from the concepts of past physicists or beliefs of that time, there were many ways in which Copernicus utilized the contributions of other men to arrive at his new theory. For example, Copernicus used mathematics, which was developed by various people and a telescope, which was invented by another man among other instruments to make observations of the Universe. It was through these observations that he derived his theory. Thus, Copernicus work was derived by the help of other people and he did not create his theory without the help of anyone. It is refreshing to note that no man can be an island because even great people need to build on the contributions of others in order to expand knowledge.

    Additionally, no man is an island because in todays world, the collective effort of everyone is needed to accomplish great things. As the world gets more complex, it takes a multi-disciplinary effort to achieve greater heights. Before Neil Armstrong stepped on to the moon, he said, One small step for man, one big step for mankind. Even though he was going to be the first person to step onto the moon while the whole world watched on, it is important to note that it was the effort of thousands of people that landed Neil Armstrong on the Moon. Engineers, programmers and different systems had to complement each others skills to perform such a complex task. Therefore, no man is an island because we need each other help to perform multi-disciplinary tasks. To close, I think no man is an island and that people need to embrace this concept in order for mankind to pull its resources together in order to advance humanity.

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