T/F:The mistakes of the past are no justification for the mistakes of the present.?Please explain your choice.

Question

All sophists play with words rather than seek the truth of the matter.
TWH 08152006

Learn2bstill, my Q's wording is neutral and it presupposes nothing about the kind of mistakes made. You read into the Q something that is not there!
TWH 08152006

Answer 1

The mistakes of the past belongs to the past. There is no reason to make them as a justification for the mistakes done in the present. However, we should also take into account that for every mistake made, one should learn a lesson.

Committing a mistake in the present that was already made in the past is just a telling that no lesson was learned in the past.

The question is not about what mistakes happened but what are the lessons learned from a mistake. If an undesirable event repeated itself, there's no reason to make the past its justification. It just shows that a person never learned their lesson well.

Answer 2

The mistakes of the past SHOULD NOT be a justification for present actions. If by mistake we define the unsatisfactory result of a purposive action, then even the more precisely because it was a failed attempt it should not be repeated but altered.
If by mistake we mean past judgement errors, unfortunately we may be ignorant that we are makeing a mistake and we continue to repeat the action-reaction pattern that lead us to commiting a mistake in the previous occurrence. We should be aware of the consequences of our actions and avoid any action, or take any decision that we conscoulsy know is against our objective, this objective being our wellfare, our happiness, our physical safety, our economic balance, etc. the principle is the same.
Apply the process of valid deduction and induction to draw valid conclusion based on true presmises.

Answer 3

True, because you're supposed to learn from your mistakes and smarten up. If you keep making the same mistake, you need to make some changes in the way you do things. If it's a new mistake then it's just part of the learning process. If we keep making the mistakes of the past, we are doomed to repeat the past.

Answer 4

I'd guess False. The 'mistakes of the past' are evidence that mistakes have occurred, and that mistakes are likely to occur again. So, in that sense, 'mistakes of the past' are evidence for, or justify, 'mistakes of the present'.

The mistake-maker is fallible (continuous cause)
The mistake-maker has made a mistake (effect)

Repeated observations of this cause and effect pattern provide increasing evidence (prior mistakes) which justify, or give reason to accept, the occurrence of present mistakes.

Answer 5

The question is both true and false. It is true that the past mistakes do not justify making the same ones in the present but it is false if the past mistakes are used to justify the correction of them in the present.

Answer 6

True...just because you made a mistake a long time ago....does not allow for you to make a mistake today....2 wrongs don't make a right...2 wrongs do make it even....so mistakes in the past do not justify mistakes of today...they just make things worse by making a precedent

Answer 7

False! Everything you ever did brought you to present. Having done things differently at some point, would of changed your life in a way that, at present moment you would of act differently then you would of acted without the change.
Everything one does and experiences matters for the present or else it wouldn't matter, so no matter if you consider mistakes or non-mistakes, your present actions are consequent to your past actions, therefore influenced by your experience.
All your present actions are justified by your experience which means your past.

Answer 8

Years ago I was watching a news show about a priest that had bombed an abortion clinic.
I asked my mother how someone who professes to be a "man of god" could justify murdering innocent people. My mother told me that people had been killing people in the name of god for eons, to which I responded, "Just because your grandfather did it, doesn't make it right."
It is up to us to become aware of the things that are being done and have been done for generations, that have no positive effect on the general populace and either change it or eliminate it all together.
Right is right and wrong is wrong and if something didnt work the first time, only an idiot would continue to attempt it over and over with the same results.

Answer 9

False.

If it had never rained before, and it were to rain for the first time today, we would wonder why. We would seek a reason, or justification, for the rain, because it had never happened before.

But because it has rained repeatedly in the past, when it rains today, we don't ask why, we expect it because it has happened numerous times before.

Likewise, if someone were to make the first mistake of all time today, we would wonder why. Not for the particulars of the specific mistake, but we would wonder why the general "act of a mistake" had happened, because it had never happened before.

But because numerous acts of mistakes have occurred repeatedly in the past, when the act of a mistake happens today, we may ask why the particular mistake happened, but we don't wonder why the general act of a mistake has occurred again. We expect the general act of a mistake, because it has happened numerous times before.

Answer 10

True. Because we should've learned from our past mistakes. Thus; helping us to prevent making those same mistakes in the future. Although, we may still make the same mistakes,they should be of less magnitude than the mistakes we made in the past.