Why study history?

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摘自<A history of psychology>, Wayne Viney, D. Brett King著
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Why study history?

The study of history can serve numerous purposes. An extensive summary of arguments on why we should study history is available in the literature. Let’s consider a few arguments supporting the study of history.


History as a key to understanding the future
“The less we know about the past and the present the more insecure must prove our judgment of the future.” “History, by apprizing people of the past, will enable them to judge of the future; it will avail them of the experience of other times and other nations.” There is a pattern in history that, when properly read, may prove consequential to our understanding and possible control of the present and the future. The study of history has utilitarian value. People who appreciate the history of psychology may be in a better position to understand current trends in the discipline and anticipate future directions.

History as a way to enrich the present
We live in a world of spatial, cultural, and temporal dimensions. It is commonly assumed that informed and cosmopolitan perspectives are based on a broad acquaintance with the geophysical world and various social and cultural institutions and organizations. Travel, the study of language and cultures, and the study of geography are ways we overcome our spatial and cultural blindness. Unfortunately, we can be just as narrow and blind with respect to our time frame as we are with our knowledge of the physical world and other cultures. Imagine how contracted, limited, and restricted your life would be if you had no memory for anything but the fading rearward portion of your consciousness. There are, of course, diseases and brain disorders that leave us in such a narrow temporal state. In fact, we can be as “lost” temporally as we are when we cannot find our way in the physical world or when we travel in a culture that is foreign to every thing we know.
     In a way, history is memory. Just as there is a freedom that goes with a healthy and functional memory, so there is an intellectual freedom that goes with the development of a broad time frame. We live more fully in the here and now if we have a rich knowledge and memory for the events that have contributed to the present. To neglect the past is to impoverish the present!

History as a contribution to liberal education
The study of history can also contribute to a liberal and informed perspective. History can help us overcome “narrow provincial, class, and regional prejudices.” An advantage of history is that it helps an individual achieve perspective and integration that might not be possible by other means. Knowledge of the history of a discipline accentuates the understanding of influences, developments, and relations and contributes to a more informed and integrated perspective. This achievement alone can be so satisfying that the study of history needs no other justification.

History teaches humility
We enjoy an advantage over previous generations because we can build on knowledge and discoveries of the past and avoid unnecessary duplication of earlier mistakes. The perspectives afforded by past knowledge are larger and more informed than perspectives afforded by the present alone. When we study history, we are constantly humbled by the genius, the effort, and the creative insight of previous thinkers. We may also encounter minds that have worked through problems that we assumed to be fresh or original.
History all to often reveals that our discovery is merely a rediscovery of an idea known long ago. The humility that history can teach was experienced by a student who planned a term paper entitled “The New Patriotism.” The point of the paper was that twentieth-century patriotism should extend beyond national borders because an interdependent world now makes larger claims on our loyalty---world claims rather than mere national claims. The student was surprised and humbled when his search uncovered an article on “The New Patriotism” published over fifty years before in Harper’s Magazine.

History teaches a healthy skepticism
Knowledge of history may temper the human tendency to worship methodological or even substantive idols. In every age, masses of people fall prey to grand claims, revolutions that promise more than they deliver, and utopian dreams. Psychology has suffered its share of ideas and methods that were overly promising.

History Influences Human Thought Processes

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