TOPIC : Only by being forced to defend an idea against the doubts and contrasting views of others does one really discover the value of that idea."
The value of an idea, can be evaluated by the applicability or impacts of it on the public and for achieving that wide impression, the idea should have the capacity to fulfill different types of perspectives and answer the doubts and challenges that may be brought by those viewpoints.
A comprehensive thought, should consider its view from different angles, so that its strengths and weaknesses can be highlighted. But the point is, It is impossible for an individual to look on a subject with that much delicacy and covers all the possible challenges by its own. On the other hand there is a high risk of bias and inclinations so the new born idea, needed to be cleared from all those by being force of defending itself through the contrasting views. So, to establish a valuable idea, it should be presented to the public in order to be questioned and challenged. The novel view cannot convert to a valuable one, if it could not defend itself against different viewpoints. These argues help it to be polished and burnished.
Different experiences in the history show that, as long as an idea was established by one or a small group and it is decided to be applied on a broader range, like a community, without those polishes, the disastrous events happened. One of these samples is Marxism, introduced by Karl Marx that affected many countries like Soviet union and eastern Europe. After a while this ideology was questioned by its own audiences, but since the idea have became so much further than a simple concept and it have changed to a political base for those countries, it was not easy and it was so late to challenge that political foundation. So all those catastrophes just happen because of not considering the others contrasting views and ideas.
In sum, it is so obvious that "The all know the all", So it seems that as much as an idea opens itself to the others and having the dare to be questioned, it will have more chance to grow and being developed.
thanks
First of all, this is not an undergraduate admissions essay. Second, it is very weak for a GRE essay. For the GRE, you are expected to show a deep level of critical thinking, not to mention a solid grasp of English grammar and style. This essay, unfortunately, does neither. The first half deals in vague generalities that seem even more abstract because of the way they are written, while the second half treats an overly broad example too simplistically. Marxism has many things wrong with it, but the rise of communism in Eastern Europe had many causes beyond a refusal to consider other points of view. So, I suggest you start over, and think about the following:
1. the Holocaust. If it is true that being forced to defend an idea against the doubts and contrasting views of others is necessary for the idea's value to manifest itself, why are Holocaust deniers often banned under hate speech laws from promulgating their views in many countries?
2. Creationism. Many scientists view creationism as socially harmful speech, inasmuch as it has no scientific merit and wastes the time of serious biologists who are forced to defend something that really isn't in need of defense.
For a really good GRE essay on this topic, keep your current thesis (that is, continue to agree with the prompt statement) but explain why using the examples I have given above. This will force you to think critically about your response.
