If past is past, why do we study history?

In a way ,we can say past is past ,and it may be very sensible.But things always have two aspects,like you said ,if this is right ,then why do we study history?Of course ,we have to study history,we can learn much from history,it is a treasure.Anyway ,the word "past is past" is just a word ,it can't represented everything.it just works when it is in the right situation.

i see everyone here has mentioned that we study history to learn from our mistakes, and to make a better future, and thats what i was going to say however another thing: humans are curious creatures, we study history to leanr how one things came about, why something is the way it is today. i cam say everyone wonders how things come about, or why something is like that. well that's why we study history, so we can understand as much of our world as possible.

Of course we can't easily forget the sadness, unhappiness we experienced in the past or else we aren't humans! But we can choose to be strengthened by our experiences or be weakened by them can continue in endless cycles, which many people would end up saying "I'd never forgive the past" even in their last hours. I thought that is pure suffering. But if we choose to be strengthened by it, we gain a broader perspective on life and become stronger ourselves, that we can say, "Nay, this is nothing, I've had worse in the past". We study history to know how we've walked the path till where we are today, and hopefully it'd give us insights to where we want to go tomorrow. Something like Microsoft's old slogan "Where do you want to go today?" when the Windows screen appears before your computer!

As my fellow posters have said already, I think we have forgotten are history because history has become a thing for only universities to speculate on and translate to us and I think this is lazy. I think it should be our responsibility as citizens to educate ourselves about the past on ALL aspects because what you learn in school will differ greatly from how another country sees a certain moment in history (maybe they even EXPERIENCED it). We are only damned to repeat history because we allow it, there being, through ignorance. Somewhere, our society has left behind the tradition of educating their young and empowering them to change their futures for the better or their fellow man. Me, I feel so much pressure sometimes because there is soo much history and catching up to do. But to study how this country was founded is proving to be a very empowering thing and it possible to see where we went wrong but it is the citizens task to step up and take back those freedoms which our founders believed was our god-given right. "[b]We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by the Creator with certain unalienable Rights; that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed; That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute a new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such a form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness[/b]. " Early American's rejected the English Constitutions rules that monarchy and Legislation ruled supreme because they knew from experience and PAST ancient history that these were vulnerable to corruption. I this is why we will freely chose to study history, not to just make the grade.

I also had the same doubt a few years ago, thinking that studying history is a total waste because past is past, already over. However, I have changed my opinion. Presently, I deem that studying history does bring us some benefits to some degree. I mean, from history, we can draw some useful lessons, such as what we should avoid to prevent such tragic in the past from reappearing. Anyway, it enlightens us to tackle present issue with more experience.

well, history is important in our daily learning life. we learn from our/others mistake so that we don't tend to make the same mistake again. we can learn not just from our/others mistake but w can also learn from others achievement. we can take things that we think is good n imply it in our daily life. there was a saying in our country; " buang yang keruh, ambil yang jernih". It means "take the positive thing and throw away the negative one".

There are certain things in history that will help us learn from our mistakes. Whether it be as a citizen, or just as a person, you can learn from the past. It's not good to dwell on the past, but remembering the past and learning from it is two different things in my opinion. I don't think I've heard it put like that before, but I do think that there is a variation of your anecdote out there! I am sure many people have wondered why if the past is the past, we study history. I think I may have even wondered on this before. Well I appreciate your discussion and I hope you have a wonderful day.

We study history so that we would learn from past mistakes and make sure they don't happen again. Smart people learn from their mistakes, but wise people learn from the mistakes or others. This is all true in theory, but not in practice unfortunately. That is why history always repeats itself. Hope we become more wiser someday.

LoL I once read book saying that people have three stages in life (Ehem! I really don't know if it really says "stages in life". I read the book when I was in 2nd yr HS hehehe...In short I forgot the right term the book used) Anyway, first we should study the past for we need to know what our ancestors have done on those past years for us and for our country. We should not forget them and their doings(We could learn from them; and it's true ^^). Second is that we should serve our country. That's why after we graduated we find jobs. Maybe some people think that the reason for finding a job is to have money in order to survive. Well maybe that reason is also included ", The third one is that when we are already old. We just need to sit back and have a rest to reminisce all the things we have done in our younger years. It includes telling your grandchildren what have you experienced and the lessons you learned. That's it. Hehehe ^^

That's really a mind boggling one. I bet, you're thinking again of your past?! ^_^ In my opinion, I think we're studying history for us to be aware of what happened the days before. Because just like in our experiences in the past we definitely could learn something from them. ^_^

wow, we have the same expression as your friend.. I only say that because I am trying to reassure myself that tomorrow is going to get better...that I am going to move on now, I say past is past is actually like fast forwarding to my life that I easily forget what just happened that was hurtful nevertheless,,i don't forget, the facts and the details..but the feeling of hurt passes... and that's for me is moving on... so when I look back it would be just lessons learned so does history no more hurt but the learnings of our ancestors, the sacrifice they made to get what we are now.. history is a part of us..it should never be forgotten..but remembered and use for the present and for the future

We study history to learn from our mistakes and learn how we got to where we are in the world. Without history, we could make the same mistakes over and over and never make progress in bettering ourselves as individuals and a society.

The modern world is increasingly a global world. The ways of thinking needed to live in it must also become global. This means we must learn to think inclusively rather than exclusively. History must become more than the history of particular nations or particular cultures. Eventually, it must become the history of human beings. And even more than that ... it must become the history of the world and the Universe we inhabit. Since the early 1990s journalists, politicians, scholars, and others have frequently resorted to the term globalization when commenting on the increasingly tight connections linking the worlds land and peoples…Yet even though they are more prominent today than ever before, global interactions and global problems are by no means new features of world history. To the contrary there is a long historical context for contemporary globalization, and only in the light of past experience is it possible to understand the contemporary world. In order to understand and perhaps solve our current issues and problems, we must look at the past events/people/circumstances of our world and how they contributed to who and what we are today. Just as we as people are influenced and shaped by our experiences, our global community is the result of such experiences.

We study history because it is how we learn. We learn how to handle situations, what outcomes to expect, how people may react, ect. It provides us with an insight into the possible outcomes from our actions so by studying history we learn what we did right and and what we did wrong. Then hopefully we can walk away no repeating the things we did wrong.

It is so true that when it comes to break ups, we have to leave the past behind. However, this saying don't apply when the break up resulted to no closure. Hence, we have to get back to the past and learn what has been wrong or to learn ways to put the past into closure. Closure is important when ending a relationship for us to freely and easily move on and certainly leave the past behind. We study History to learn the origins of things and happenings. It is a way to learn from our mistakes for us not to repeat it.

xroadsempress, Abba Eban once said: “History teaches us that men and nations behave wisely once they have exhausted all other alternatives.” I do agree that the past is the past, but that does not mean that there is no significance especially when it has authentic account of our past ancestries, roots, existence and most of all grave mistakes committed in the past, which hopefully will not be repeated or even rhymed today. I am sure all of us will be able to prevent and avoid the mistakes of the past when we could learn from history as per the words of Woody Allen: “More than any other time in history, mankind faces a crossroads. One path leads to despair and utter hopelessness. The other, to total extinction. Let us pray we have the wisdom to choose correctly.” Have a nice day.

yes past is past. we should not look back. that i mean our personal experience that gave us bad memories. about history. so we hve to trace where we came from and what are the factors that made us what we are now. things that we had nothing directly to do with but still have some sort of connection. so we have to learn past history.

"Past is Past" This means that we cannot turn back the time, whatever we have done. Either right or wrong, good or bad, makes us sad or happy. We cannot change it. What we can do is to learn from it and think for the future. Learning history is important for us to know the beginning of something that happen. For example in a murder crime, we need to learn things that happen in the past to learn why the victim was murder. Its very basic in order to solve the problem. We can't just say "past is past". There are many things we can learn from the past that can be use in the future. Studying our history creates ways on solving problems that could happen in the future. For example, you learn that in the past a flash flood happen in your area. So basically in order to prevent it from happening ever again, you create ways to stop it from happening again.. Actually past is just a guide for us to become better people in the future..^_^

I think what she meant about that phrase is that... she's ready to move one and move forward coz remembering the past is keeping her from growing and being healed... We study history coz its a part of every human being to learn from past mistakes... The world used to be a better place and war came and now we have peace and in some way we develop a sense of understanding why it happened so we preserve whatever we are experiencing right now... As part of human evolution history serves as basis of comparison or standard if we are growing or improving and learning... We wouldn't have know how far we have gone and how advanced our technology is if we won't compare it from our past... In her case, she wants to move on and uses whatever experience she gained from her past and learned from it so she could equip herself with more wisdom from that incident to guide her present and future relationships...

History is always been my fave subject. I like to know the world before, what was it like, people their culture, how they dress, everything. I'm so interested.. We live today because of our past.