0910AW 同主题写作第八期 ISSUE221 by iloveusa2009

iloveusa2009UID: 2650557

ISSUE221 - "The chief benefit of the study of history is to break down the illusion that people in one period of time are significantly different from people who lived at any other time in history."


Comparing with the ancient humans, modern people make a great deal of difference which not only involve the thought and behavior but also the mechanism of the body.
Despite this fact, some people assert that human beings of various ages have the uniformity on the whole even though there are also many differences in detail and the chief benefit of the study of history is to find the consistency of the process of human. However, there are both benefit in seeking general character and understanding diversity.

Broadly speaking, history informs us that certain part of human nature remains unchanged as history goes. The selfish gene continues to impact human behavior. Moreover, it is obvious that people can never really understand each other in any period of history no matter how hard they try to seek the harmony. History, as a research way to show more inspiration to modern people to avoid negative effect coming from human nature, would provide many reference cases of the similarity type. Basic human nature has remained constant over recorded time. For instance, by studying the history of marriage and family, people can find some consistency factors which have always played an important part in married life such as economic cooperation purpose, emotional needs and reproductive instinct. Through this realization, people can benefit as a society in dealing more effectively with the enduring social problems involve relations between the two sexes.

On the other hand, it is equally beneficial to understand and appreciate significant differences between people of different time periods. Human beings keep evolving and making great improvement over the long history. Comparing with the ancient humans, modern people make a great deal of differences which not only involve the thought and behavior but also the mechanism of the body. Although facing the same problem such as gender conflicts and threat of war, the representation and result of modern society are very different from what it was foretime: today’s feminist can not understand ethical basis and rationality of the fact that polygamy once existed widely in the past; the threat of nuclear war overhangs modern society, yet people in the past even the age of cold weapon can not imagine the horrors of nuclear blast. For that reason, economical, technological, social differences are all that people need to take into consideration in their process of pursuing the truth,

History also focuses attention on the complex processes of social change, including the factors that are causing change around us today. People would always lead the later generations a better way to a satisfied future. In fact, humans today show more difference of their ancestors is just result from predecessors' guide which finally interfered the direction of human evolution. The predecessors’ achievement will inspire posterity in order to make greater progress while the lessons of the past will caution modern people not to fall in the same trap.

In sum, the chief benefit of the study of history is to understand human nature. In the course of history, selfish and loftiness, parochialism and leniency, avarice and temperance which are major element of humanness will continuously open out through different way of problem solving. In all the knowledge and wisdom, to understand human is the most difficult. As it turns out, history is the best text book involves understanding original human nature.