Do we need knowledge of the pas to fully understand the present?

Question

For example like, if we know what mistakes we made from the past we will not repeat the same mistakes again.

Answer 1

Who are the 'pas' and what knowledge do they possess?

Answer 2

Do you honestly think that if you memorized the entire Old Testament that you would be in some better position to stop the violence in the Middle East today? If you somehow knew every action and reaction, every name of every victim and their murderers, every caliber of every bullet fired in the past five years there that it would matter?

There is no such thing as objective history. It's all recorded by highly biased and blatantly prejudiced individuals in such a way that there is no real lesson to be learned from it other than what you as an individual insist on applying to it.

As an example, take theology. You can go to college for eight years, earn a doctorate, become a professor and teach the field etc etc etc and still know next to nothing about the field. Why? because there is no objective history of the field. All you're learning is how to parrot the words of other folks before you....who are in effect doing the very same. I could tell you, if I were a theology major, everything that Billy Graham thinks about God....but I can't tell you about God.

You can go through school and learn the "reasons behind the American Civil War" and how it was a war to end slavery and all that crap. That's got to be the truth because your teacher said so, right? Did they also mention to you that the North passed tarriffs on the South that caused the South to have to pay 90% of the entire revenue collected in the US? No? Why not?

Something more impacting that we all know as an example? How about the WW2 Holocaust? Very bad thing there with those six million Jews being murdered and all....but was that the worst part about WW2? Ask that question of the FORTY million Russians who were killed? Were you taught that in school? In another fifty years will *anyone* be taught that in school?

There is nothing in life that is truly objective. There is no "truth" that isn't filtered through the eyes and mind of the observer and the recorder of that so-called truth. If there is no real truth, no real history, there is no real lesson that can be learned from that lack of truth.

Answer 3

History is important to understanding how evolution, technology and the advancements we as humans have made but we live in the present and cannot live or change the knowledge of our past. Do not use the excuses that this happened before, now is time to make a fresh and more healthier past for the future generations growing. It is a circle of life. Live the best you know and want now.

Answer 4

Understanding history does help us to understand the present. Inasmuch as the history of a certain race of people, the struggles they went through throughout the ages, helps us to understand what their concerns are today.

Unfortunately, knowing about the past doesn't mean that we will not repeat the same mistakes over and over. Its a sad fact of life, history repeats itself.

Answer 5

Yes. Simply put, without knowledge there is no understanding. Knowledge is gained in the present and at the same time becomes knowledge of the past.

Answer 6

Not necessarily. I think in some cases that may very well be true, but in other cases free thinking is more valuable than looking at , and trying to improve, solutions used in the past.

Answer 7

Of course, we need to learn from our mistakes, our thoughts, our experience. Of course we need the knowledge of the past to understand the present.

Not only our past but also the past of human history can make us understand the present:

-Inventions and theories from the past help now scientists to make one more step to understanding the world.

-History of human wars help us realise how silly and cruel our mind can be.

-The history of arts shows us how creative we can be.

-The stories of people who dedicated their lifes helping others make us understand that we shouldn't think only our shelfs.

If something hurt you or your feelings, the learning power of your mind will help you not to get hurt again. :-)

Answer 8

interesting question. I am not a determinist, but I am strongly reminded of my studies of them. A determinist would say that if you ever completely and absolutely understand any moment in time that you understand all the past and the future. for you must now how every little particle is traveling, its speed, its vector ect. and if you understand that the future is absolute and so is the past.

Answer 9

One advantage to having an understanding of the past is;

It's easier to know where you are going when you know from whence you started.

Answer 10

Obviously Hitler did not read history books, because he would have learned from Napoleon's mistakes in Russia. And I fear that we did not learn from Hitler either, as we see more and more neo-fascists emerge in our society!

Answer 11

we will keep repeating the mistake until we learn from it.