Dol Raj Kunwar

"We can usually learn much more from people whose views we share than from people whose views contradict our own"; disagreement can cause stress and inhibit learning." The axiomatic fact one cannot refute is that human beings, by nature, have eclecticism of viewpoints and opinions in a particular subject of concern. The world influx with the randomness of events has comparable degree of concord as well as discord of opinion and interest of people in any specific field. Keeping the inevitability of the randomness in focus, the prompt claims that the consonant opinions end up with much more learning than the dissonant views—which may impede learning. However, I disagree the claim to some respect keeping in mind the disadvantages of disagreement. In some cases, the disparity of viewpoints may bring rift between the people adhering to these opinions. Take political parties as an example: we can clearly notice the friction between two opposition parties in the program in TV and radios, where they are interviewed. The representative of one party is often found uttering his/her viewpoints boisterously; as a reaction, another person does the same with his/her viewpoint opposing the opponent’s. the show is filled with lots of epithets. Obviously, the scenario inhibits learning. The dissimilarity of opinions may engender riot in a country. As an extant example, we can refer to a revolt and strike where lots of people involve in order for their opinion or demands to be addressed by the authority; Obviously, this is the consequence of disagreement which may rise stress. On the contrary, the similarity of opinion is likely to bring harmony between people who share their views. For instance, the relation between husband and wife flourishes happily when they have their interests and opinions in common than the discordant counterpart. However, the dissimilarity of opinion is often found to be productive and encouraging the learning through the new ideas generated in the disparity of viewpoints. Take a debate competition as an example, where different participants utter discordant opinions. Let’s drive our attention to the first participant’s perspective. Having uttered his/her opinion on a particular subject, he can learn much more from the opinion of all other individuals who contradict his previous statements rather than from those who support his opinion. the inevitability of facts and truth underlying in science is the result of eclecticism of opinions in a particular research field where the varieties of research findings and theories are critically analyzed. We often find the particular theory being challenged by new researches; and, this engenders rise of knowledge rather than riot. In sum, to say definitively whether the similarity of opinions encourages more learning than the discordant opinions is quite complex: both opinions have merits as well as dent. Despite some negative effects, we cannot neglect significance of the disparity of opinions. Thus, disagreement can corroborate learning too.