Issue103 永不言弃第十五次作业 by stgzhao

stgzhaoUID: 2583165

TOPIC: ISSUE103 - "The study of history has value only to the extent that it is relevant to our daily lives."
WORDS: 605          TIME: 00:35:49          DATE: 2009-2-20 10:32:23

There is a group of people in the world who "lives" in the past, such kinds of people may includes historians, archaeologists, and so forth. One may thinks, as the speaker asserts, that these people's work - the study of history has little value unless to the extent that it is relevant to our daily lives. I admit there is some point in this assertion. However, to a larger degree I hold an opposite position that by studying history we make tremendous benefits to both individuals and society.
A basic function of the study of history is to bring us the knowledge of the past, which, at least can satisfy one's curiosity. To discuss this more thoroughly, I believe if we knows the history well, we will be able to get a knowledge of how human society develops and changes and hence know the past, understand today, and even predict tomorrow. Historians abstract the basic principles of societal development, i.e how people get to live together as tribes, how tribes become countries and why countries fight with each other all along the history. A historian, better known as a philosopher, Karl Marx serves as a good example as he predicted the appearance of a nation form like the Soviet Union and China by studying the history of societal vicissitude.
One may ask how these kinds of knowledge benefits him. I have to say that history is the best textbook we have ever had. We are able to follow the tracks of the great men in history. If you wish to become a scientist, it will do goods for you to find out how Isaac Newton or Albert Einstein growing to attain such achievement. Or maybe you wish to be a artist, then you have to remind yourself not to repeat Vincent Van Gogh's tragedy. In other word, individuals learn from the history to chase their way to success and avoid making same mistakes. What a precious experience!
It is the same case for society. We human beings have suffered two world wars during the last one hundred years and countless regional conflicts. We may get to know the reason why people are fighting against each other so that we can prevent that from happening again. History tells us what is appropriate and what is not. By undergoing the Civil War Americans realized that slavery is not fit for them. Every thoughtful man will not think about slavery when he faces some trouble as a nation's leader at present. The study of history makes politicians very cautious when they are making decisions and endue them the ability not to making same errors as our forebears did. This is an extent far more important than the extent relevant to our daily lives.
Admittedly, the history is somehow out of date in the "Information Age" of today. Some experience in history find little usage in today's live. This, however, put forward a issue of great importance that how we deal with the study of history. In my opinion, the best choice is to extract the useful knowledge and ignore the useless one.
In sum, I mostly disagree with the statement "The study of history has value only to the extent that it is relevant to our daily lives". Even though I confess that there is something of no use in the study of history, however, it does benefits us greatly if we carry the study of history prudentially and selectablly. After all, just as an old saying in China goes, treating the history as a mirror, one can easily know what is right and what is wrong.