- Question
- Is history important?
- Position1 of 2›
- History is important
"Those who don't learn from history are doomed to repeat it," a variation on the famous quote by George Santayana, is often used as an argument in favor of studying history.
The argument
One of the most common arguments in favour of studying history is captured in George Santayana's line: 'Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.' The claim it makes is causal rather than decorative. People who do not learn from the mistakes of the past go on to make the same mistakes, because nothing else stops them from doing so: without a record of what a course of action led to last time, each generation meets every situation as though it were new. The saying is held to be true of world history and of personal history alike, and the argument works through both scales. Countries commit terrible acts all the time, especially in times of war. The Holocaust was a terrible crime against humanity which should never be repeated, and it can be recognised as such by people who did not live through it only because it is remembered. Knowing what was done, who did it and what made it possible is what allows a later society to recognise the early stages of something similar and refuse them. A society that had no such knowledge would have nothing to compare its own situation against. The same holds for individuals. When a person makes a mistake and does not learn from it, they usually make the same mistake again — in relationships, at school, in their job — because the behaviour that produced the outcome is still in place and nothing has prompted them to change it. Learning from it is precisely the act of turning a past event into a constraint on future choices. What is true on the personal scale is true on the macro scale, with countries and their histories. Since forgetting the past is what makes repeating it possible, and since study is how a society remembers, history is important.
Premises
Counter-arguments
Quoting the saying is pointless because, regardless of whether or not people learn from the past, the past seems to repeat itself anyway.
Rejecting the premises
[Rejecting P1] War keeps happening regardless. [Rejecting P2] Some people do not learn from their mistakes.