4. The greatness of individuals can be decided only by those who live after them, not by their contemporaries.

The statement above takes an extreme position by claiming that it is only by people who live after the great individuals that greatness of them can be decided. In essence, persons can be decidedly great despite being totally unknown from the others. Nevertheless, when it comes to recognition of the others, those who live after the individuals can better confirm the magnitude of them.

Neither contemporaries nor the future generations, persons themselves by knowing that they had done something precious for the humanity has the right to recognize their greatness. Can we exclude the unknown people from having greatness merely because in future there is no name of them? No. To illustrate, consider the unidentified corpses of those who went to help the human beings in war-torn countries and lost their lives in the form of nurses or physicians. Such a philanthropic act guarantees their outstanding level without the need of confirmation of others.

Now, when we tie the significance of men and women to the judgment of others, those who will live in the future can make better judgments while contemporaries might not be able to judge properly. This is because the more time is passed, the wider information is achieved. For illustration, consider that a founder of an industry, who has provided jobs for local citizens, might be relied as a great man. When long time is passed, with the pollution and the diseases the industry brings on the local citizens, they no more enumerate the person as a great individual. Therefore the passage of time gives more information to judge better.

Furthermore, men and women who are ahead of their time might not be recognized properly by the contemporaries. Consider Vincent Van Gogh. His paintings are traded in terms of millions of dollars, while during his life he became so desperate that cut off his ear to draw the attention of the then society to his work. After he died, his posthumous fame was due to the understanding of the art society of the style which was not understandable during the life of its founder, van Gogh.

However, contemporaries are able to attribute magnitude to somebody. Someone who contributes something helpful that is not far from the understanding of his/her coevals, can be recognized decently. Fleming, the discoverer of antibiotic was one of the magnificent personages who established and proved his outstanding level both among coevals and the future generations. Due to his self-evidently priceless work was that he immediately became recognized as a great person.

In short, greatness and fame are not necessarily in a firm correlation, as the statement claims so; people can achieve decided greatness without being known by anyone. But when we include others idea whether to attribute high value to someone or not, the future can have better judgment. Nevertheless, coevals are also able to evaluate the one definitely who has contributed something great where their contribution is understandable for contemporaries.