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Modern and Historical WorldviewsChristina MertzHonors: Foundations of Western Civilization: HIST 100-5013 December 2013Many people question the value of studying history, for it often seems to have no use in the modern world. They claim that history “has no serious function,” and that studying it is beneficial only for interest’s sake. History, they say, has no relation to our lives today. What happened in the past has undoubtedly brought us here, but since it has already been done, studying it is a useless endeavor that can do nothing to change the more pressing issues of modern society. They may claim that even if studying history has a value in and of itself, “[i]t establishes no truths.” In many ways, they are right; for we can never be absolutely certain if so-called historical “facts” are actually true or not. However, merely being able to look into a moment in the past has the ability to change the way we see the world, which, in many ways, is an even greater benefit than knowing undoubtable facts about that past. Perhaps a shift in worldview is all that we need to solve an issue, or, using history less pragmatically, perhaps it simply makes our own worldviews more beautiful. Contrary to many people’s beliefs, then, a study of history is intimately valuable to us and to our modern lives. The past certainly has some value for the present, but the common statement that we must study history to learn from it often fails to hold true. With different people, issues, and systems, nothing can ever happen the exact same way again; therefore, it is foolish for us to expect that the lessons we have learned in the past can help us through our future. However, the human race has built upon the struggles and lessons of the past to create the present. If we had no past to rely on, we would be constantly circling the same issues, repeating the same mistakes, and coming up with the same primitive solutions. Through our access to the past, we are able to create new solutions that build upon all that the human race has learned over the course of time.However, there are other, more subtle ways that history is usable for the present. As Wineburg discusses, one of the benefits of history is that it is both familiar and strange. Studying history allows us to “locate our own place in the stream of time and solidify our identity in the present.” Studying history gives us “an endless storehouse of raw materials [that we can shape] for our present needs.” History has the power to “spur us to reconsider how we see ourselves as human beings.” Clearly, then, we can use the past to help us with some challenging modern questions. Broad questions like the human identity, the impact of individuals, and other such philosophical points to ponder can be addressed in the context of history, for history allows us “to go beyond our own image, to go beyond our brief life, and to go beyond the fleeting moment in human history into which we’ve been born.”Another way that history can be used for the present is that it can give us a new lens through which to see our world. Wineburg points out the possibility that the Egyptians actually “saw differently” with a “way of seeing that is irretrievably lost.” This idea may seem surreal, but perhaps it is so tantalizing because it is true. For example, I once witnessed an informal experiment where people named the same color, but, shaped by their particular circumstances and experiences, they often identified its particular shade differently. This clearly shows that each person, modern as well as historical, actually does have a unique vision of the world. In the same way, the particular culture and way of life of the Egyptians gave them, individually and as a collective people an undeniably different worldview than we have today. This is a beautiful way in which the study of history can change our present lives, for without history, we might never know that such a way of seeing could even exist.When we see the past in this untouchably beautiful way, it may suddenly seem harder to realize that it is our own heritage, but it is this very unfamiliarity that allows us “to reconsider how we see ourselves as human beings.” We must accept that we are heirs of a history that has been wonderful and miserable, kind and despicable. When we encounter certain parts of history, perhaps those that are related to our modern lives or those that seem extremely foreign, we are forced to place our own selves in the contexts of that past. For example, I have found throughout the course that I often feel a surge of pride when learning about some of the historical characters most important to me today, like Martin Luther. When we study history, we humanize our past, giving it names and emotions, and we feel a stronger attachment to our present.Continuing with this, then, we must take care to be objective in order to study history most accurately. If we want to use history to learn where we truly come from, we must allow it to “destroy our false sense of proximity to people of the past.” The way many people do history today is by reading it so selectively that they recreate it in the contexts of their own worldviews, which are often incompatible with the historical worldviews they claim to be studying. For example, Wineburg tells of an experiment in which a reader, encountering historical documents about the war tactics of the colonists, assumed that they would fight in a modern style. However, he failed to recognize that such historical characters had far different worldviews than the common worldviews of today. He did not use this unfamiliarity “to ask himself new questions or to consider new dimensions of human experience.” Rather, he allowed “his existing beliefs [to shape] the information he encountered.” Though not the goal studying history, this projection of our present onto the past is often the result of such a study.In the end, we make the choice of whether we create our history or our history creates us. Of course, it can only change us if we study it, so in that way, we always have a role in its power over us. Reading historical documents and looking only for the specific information that we want is another way in which we create our own history, but when we do so, we are building an inaccurate history. Ideally, history should help us to recognize that modern and historical people alike see the world differently. If we allow ourselves to be shaped by these differences and to see the world through this irreplaceable historical lens, then history makes us, and it makes us better. ................
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