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

When we tie the significance of men and women to the judgment of others, those who will live in the future can make decent judgments while contemporaries might not be able to do so. But the statement above takes an extreme position by claiming that only by people who live after an individual can the value of the individual be determined.

To begin with, future generations have a privilege of time over contemporaries, as the magnitude of characters can be judged better with the passage of time. Especially individuals with their long-effect contributions, need time to be fully perceived. This period exceeds their own lives, and in the meantime the figures of influence may not be appreciated deservedly. Take the post humus fame of Mendel for instance. The scientific society of his time, as there were lots of questions that Mendel could have not answered them, did not accept the Mendel’s laws of inheritance of features. Yet, no sooner had the scientists attained the knowledge to use this discovery in addressing the genetic diseases than Mendel’s greatness became fully realized.

The same scenario happens, especially for those men and women who are ahead of their time and might not be recognized properly by the contemporaries. Usually people are reluctant to the changes. As the contributions of the great individuals bring forth the changes, their contemporaries_ either from being jealous, or not being able to understand the necessity of the change_ do not appreciate the greatness of the individuals. Think about Van Gogh when he introduced a genre of painting, and was not appreciated an iota during his lifetime.

Furthermore, in many instances, the greatness of the individuals is not perceived by the contemporaries to the point that they even disparage the work of their great people. Such a Jealousy wanes after the great one dies, as his/her reputation is not a threat to the future careers of the same field.

However, contemporaries are not unable 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, 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, whose great contribution is understandable for contemporaries.