4 ms·
History is absolutely fascinating (one of my favorite subjects), but not very useful. History has too high of causal density to allow drawing any clear lessons.
by nickff 4y ago
History is absolutely fascinating (one of my favorite subjects), but not very useful. History has too high of causal density to allow drawing any clear lessons. We’ve studied WWI and WWII extensively, and nobody’s really sure what ‘caused’ either. Was it the shooting of an archduke that caused both? What about the arms buildups? The alliances? Just flukes? It’s not clear, and it never will be.
History is a beautiful subject and a great hobby, but almost completely useless. On the other hand, every student needs to understand finance and the law, both on the individual level, and in order to be a thoughtful voter.
- f1shy 4y agoThat part of history, like the two WW, of course. The sample size is too small. It is not like: "I will look what happened in the past, and apply that today." That is most likely impossible, just because of context. But trying to understand what happened, really helps as a gymnastic to understand world dynamics. For example, good history teaching should have helped Europe to not be so dependent of Russian gas... I think the people making the decision there were not paying attention in history classes, or had bad teachers/professors. But if you for example analyze the rise and fall of cities, empires and civilizations, there are some things you can learn (e.g. overuse of resources). Also the the economical crisis, bubbles and inflation teaches a lot of things. Studying totalitarian regimes in the past, can help to detect the first signs of alarm. It is not an exact science, yes. But knowing the past helps to understand the present, and helps to not repeat mistakes. I really think it does.