ISSUE120 【Aero小组】第3次作业 by lingfoz

lingfozUID: 2435613

Issue120So much is new and complex today that looking back for an understanding of thepast provides little guidance for living in the present.

The speaker asserts that the studyof history provides little guidance for the reason that contemporary society isso new and complex. While it is true that our society today is increasing moreand more new things, and becoming unprecedented complex, I think history remainindispensable for society as well as for individuals. There are threefundamental reasons to support my assertion.

In the first place, history helpspeople know society and culture in which they live. History provides astorehouse of information about how people and society behave in the past,bases on which we can contemplation of how society function. Admittedly, peopleneed to have some sense of the operation of their society simply to run theirown lives. Moreover, history helps us understand changes in our society now.When we are prone to find out why something happens in the present, we probablyhave to look for factors that took shapes earlier. Only through the study ofhistory can we grasp how things change. It is commonly acknowledged that thepast causes the present, and so the future. Consider modern political andsocial problems as well as significant changes in society, althoughthese things are never happened before, we can find itsorigin from history. Thereforethe study of history helps us comprehend how our society works and understand theproblems and changes of our society in depth.

In the second place, historyprovides unique insight into human nature and human civilization. We confronthistorical record not only of human achievement but also of human failure,cruelty, and barbarity, the study of history provides us with a richly-textured,substantive framework for understanding the human condition and grappling withmoral questions and problems.

Finally, an understanding of thepast benefits our own private lives. "History teaching by example" isone phrase that describes this use of a study of the past—a study not only of certifiable heroes, the great men and women ofhistory who successfully worked through moral dilemmas, but also of moreordinary people who provide lessons in courage, diligence, or constructiveprotest. In addition, History also helps provide identity, consider, forexample, studying the history of one's own family. It is the most obvious useof history, for it provides facts about genealogy and a basis for understandinghow the family has interacted with larger historical change. By family history,Family identity is established and confirmed.

In sum, although contemporary societyis new and complex, an understanding of the pass remains essential toindividuals and to society. History helps people understand societydevelopment, the nature of human beings, and benefit our own lives, these,fundamentally, are why we cannot stay away from history.