issue 103

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大家指教
103.”The study of history has value only to the extent that it is relevant to our daily lives."

The speaker asserts that the study of history has no value unless it is relevant to our daily lives. I strongly disagree with it. While this notion might appeal to certain existentialists, it runs against the grain of all the history of the world. It is true that the products of historical study are less tangible, sometimes less immediate, than those that stem from some other disciplines, but history is in fact very useful, actually indispensable.

In the first place, history helps us understand change and how the society we live in came to be. By studying history we could avoid making the same mistakes that had happened in the past. For example, if we want to evaluate a war in a peace time, we could only use historical materials. Consequently, history must serve, however imperfectly, as our laboratory, and data from the past must serve as our most vital evidence in the unavoidable quest to figure out why our complex species behaves as it does in societal settings. This, fundamentally, is why we cannot stay away from history: it offers the only extensive evidential base for the contemplation and analysis of how societies function, and people need to have some sense of how societies function simply to run their own lives. On the other hand, forgetting the past means a kind of defection in same extent. A man or a nation must be responsible for its behavior that he did before or he may in all likelihood slide to the old way which would be harm to both the society and the individual.

Secondly, history is a mirror form which we could see the future. The past causes the present, and so the future. Sometimes fairly recent history will suffice to explain a major development, but often we need to look further back to identify the causes of change. Only through studying history can we grasp how things change; only through history can we begin to comprehend the factors that cause change; and only through history can we understand what elements of an institution or a society persist despite change.

Finally, knowledge of history helps us to do any further development. Just as one of the most significant scientist—Newton said: “If I have been able to see further, it was only   because I stood on the shoulders of giants.” Thus we could say the pre-scientists’ contributions are still of great importance to our today’s research. In the same time, Newton had made a huge impact in theoretical astronomy. He defined the laws of motion and universal gravitation which he used to predict precisely the motions of stars, and the planets around the sun. Using his discoveries in optics Newton constructed the first reflecting telescope. In addition, it does not only serve scientific field but also does in other subjects such as art, literature and so on.

To sum up, history is not only essential to the individual and the society but harbors beauty and it offers a storehouse of information about how people and societies behave. It is true that the history which is relevant to our daily life has its value, but besides, it also affects many other aspects of our society. In the final analysis, “history makes man wise.”