History: escape to the past or lessons for the present?
I’ve always liked history. And because the un-examined predilection is not worth having (γνῶθι σεαυτόν), I turn to Livy to understand it:
This I hold to be the chief value and reward of history, to have examples of all kinds set forth as an illustrious record, from which you may choose what is worthy of imitation in public and private life, and what is to be shunned as wrong in inception and ruinous in outcome
Livy, Preface to History of Rome.
Quoted from “Classics In Translation: Volume II, Latin Literature”, MacKendrick and Howe, 1982
So, history provides examples for present living. It provides a moral and practical purpose, helping to guide our interactions with others in the present, but also…
To me on the contrary it is one of the rewards of my labors to turn away for a little while from the multitude of evils which our own age has witnessed, and to give my whole mind to those earlier times, released from every care or consideration by which the historian’s mind might be troubled and distracted, if not deflected from the pursuit of truth.
Livy, Preface to History of Rome.
Quoted from “Classics In Translation: Volume II, Latin Literature”, MacKendrick and Howe, 1982
The study of history can also provide a private, personal escape from the calamities and confusion of the present.
And of course, there can be value in loving or doing a thing for it’s own sake. Without such passions, life becomes meaningless drudgery. That said, here, from this morning’s introspection, are a few more possible reasons I might be fascinated with history. History can be:
- an escape
- a “safe place”
- a source of examples for living in the world today
- a place to find idealized people and institutions (that may never have actually existed in the form we visualize)
- something fixed in a changing world
- a place where we know the outcomes
- a place where we can approach the world in the third person
- something to give context and explanations to our current beliefs
- a place where we do not have to enter into personal conflict
- a collection of interesting stories
And, yes, I do have one son studying to be a History/Social Studies teacher and another who has devoured the western cannon. The apples do not fall far from the tree.
Post 34 of #100DaysToOffload https://100daystooffload.com/