Is history the study of progress?

[LUMOS ULTIMATUM]

Keep it serious because this is the section for real matters. Feel free to express your opinions.

 

[magicman420]

history is the study of important events from the past, i ate french fries yesterday that is in the past but not important so they obviously don't teach that in school haha

 

[Darth Vader]

That is a very interesting question. I've never looked at it that way.

 

[Heisenberg284]

History is an awesome subject, I don't know why so many people dislike it. I love the question, pretty interesting.

 

[Snape Uchiha]

What do you mean by progress? The destruction of the roman empire wasn't progress but it is still history.

 

[LUMOS ULTIMATUM]

What do you mean by progress? The destruction of the roman empire wasn't progress but it is still history.

By history is the study of progress, I am asking if you believe that by gazing at the past and studying it, you can correct your mistakes and creating a better world. However, the topic has no definite answer and launches a debate.

 

[MuerteMiAmigo]

thats a cool way to look at it
that might be a type of history. but when you say history its just the major points in the past of what ever your talking about

 

[rollin]

You can't trust history too much
History is written by the winners

 

[Aim64C]

History is a study of past events.

It should, if anything, be a humbling experience. If history truly were the study of progress, it would not even be a study as the lessons it would have to teach us would be about a time that no longer exists.

History is the study of efforts and their consequences - success, failure, and impact.

The history of the Ottoman Empire is just as relevant to all of today's major regional powers as it would have been to the Egyptian Empire centuries before it.

That does not speak well for the concept of history being the study of progress.

We simply delude ourselves into believing that all that will be made is progress because the past four generations were born into and died within two completely different worlds. That is how great our technological renaissance has been.

History would indicate that it would be wise to tread carefully, to resist the lures of excessive loans and debt-based monetary systems. It would indicate that centralizing power and regulating/taxing business is a poor solution to shoring up governments.

It would caution that no matter how much advancement has been seen in what man can do, little advancement has been made in what man will do.

The Buddhists understood this long ago. The concept of society and cultures following a cycle of waxing, waning, and relative productivity/complacency is immortalized in the "Cycle of Human Suffering."

Or, in Naruto-Base terms: The Six Paths of Pain.

Buddhists held that understanding the process and seeing beyond the next immediate 'phase' could allow individuals (and even cultures) to transcend the drone-like automotive existence.

Thought there are many interpretations.

 

[cptenn94]

History is the study of past events, that ultimately show human nature. If that nature is changeing, then it is progress.

People who are well versed in history, can many times make almost prophetical predictions about what will happen next.(due to the cycle of human nature)

For example. History shows that if you create a position of great power, someone can, and WILL abuse it at some point down the road.

That does not mean that it always repeats itself.

For instance. My sister comes home from work, and will eat any prepared food in the fridge. She will many times eat leftovers that one of us had saved for lunch tommorow or something.

So based on her past history, I can predict she will eat my food tonight
However sometimes, she wont eat our food, and she may go against her history, and not eat it tonight.



The people who use history to their advantage, and in decision makeing, are known as being wise.

 

[cptenn94]

You can't trust history too much
History is written by the winners

Not true. You can go and read things from the losers as well. Sure the history you are taught, is written by winners. That doesnt mean the stuff the losers wrote is nonexistant.

 

[cptenn94]

By history is the study of progress, I am asking if you believe that by gazing at the past and studying it, you can correct your mistakes and creating a better world. However, the topic has no definite answer and launches a debate.

Perhaps progress is just the study of history and learning from those mistakes, to correct them in the future.

I do not think history is the study of progress though.

 

[EnDash]

By history is the study of progress, I am asking if you believe that by gazing at the past and studying it, you can correct your mistakes and creating a better world. However, the topic has no definite answer and launches a debate.

ine some way it's true, learning from mistakes and successes in the past can help deal with problems in the present. but i don't think it's the only way or the best way to do that. the fact that we are not living in a peaceful utopia now means they probably didn't have the right answers...

critical and logical thinking is the solution, if there is any solution. teaching people to always think about everything, always question and debate and never take anything for granted is how we might get an answer to the world's problems.