Why must we study our past?

Question

Why must we study our past?

Answer 1

If you ever get the chance, read The Republic of Plato, translated by Alan Bloom.  It's an excruciating read, but, it's scary how dead on it is in the assessment of social conditions and varying political establishments.

Answer 2

I don't know who said it but "A smart man learns from his mistakes. A wise man learns from the mistakes of others." In either case we don't learn from the present or the future, we learn from our past. If we don't study our past we cannot learn, we cannot understand what is a waste of time, what doesn't work and what is bad for us. Studing the past is the ONLY way to know how to choose the best path for the future.

Answer 3

"Those who cannot remember the past, are condemned to repeat it."  George Santayana, 1905.

Answer 4

To learn from our successful experiences and avoid repeating our mistakes

Answer 5

To learn from the successes of people who faced the same problems in the past. To understand that humans are humans, and they can do terrible things as well as good things. To learn that hatred and blame are not the answer. To learn about the many different solutions used and which ones worked and which ones failed terribly and to not make those same mistakes again. To understand humanity, sociology, and the human mind.

Most of all to make sure that no one will hold grudges about the past and to understand the reasons why governments and people did what they did and why they should or should not be repeated.

Answer 6

We study our past because people like me and a lot of other people enjoy learning their roots and where they come from. We like learning what our ancestors did and achieved and how it influenced the world we live in now.

Here's a quote "a person without a past doesn't have a future"

Answer 7

No reason, I think it's just interesting to learn about what was here before us.

Answer 8

There is an old saying, "If you don't learn from history, you are bound to repeat it".

Answer 9

We cannot know where to go, until we know where we've been.

Answer 10

It is not a matter of "must".   All our present leaders in the world are perfectly aware of the past but still repeat the errors of the past.

Answer 11

Well if you look at that on a huge scale, reviewing every year of our recorded and known exsistense on this planet, our planet's birth, the life and death of an exotic sovereign, etc etc etc - it seems a trifle silly and a waste of time.

But if you reduce that to simple thinking, a personal basis, it makes a lot of sense. When you stick your hand through a fence, and on the other side is a dog with rabies, when it snaps at you and bites - you're going to howl in pain and then develop rabies - how tragic! Now your average Joe would stop and think "Gee, that was really dumb, I'm not going to do that again" Only a moron would keep sticking his hand out for the dog to bite.

So as you can see, it's important that we learn from our mistakes - especially ones so big a scale that effect millions and forever change our lives - and make sure they never happen again. It's surely impossible to create a perfect world, we shall always have our problems, but learning to never repeat the Holocaust or noting what can become of religious warfare, we can correct our ways.

Cheers!

Answer 12

To learn how we have come to where we are, to remember the people who brought us here and to figure out a way to make a better future.

Answer 13

...so that the mistakes of the past do not visit the future.  Just as we learn grow from our trials and mistakes, so also do societies.