ANSWERS: 24
  • History repeats itself. The mistakes sure do because you learn that when you study it. However, world leaders do not look at that and keep making the same political and management mistakes over and over. We are into the bread and circus stage the Romans went through before their empire fell.
  • What exactly do you plan on basing your research on with the past being cast away?
  • knowing the best will give us more insight as to how to approach researching new things beneficial to mankind. a good analogy would be having a light to help us find a coin under the bed rather than without one.
  • empirically-based research is based on findings from the past, sometimes other empirically based research, sometimes, subjective histories or even biographies, right? history is the key to forming sound hypotheses for our investigations. i do, however, agree with you, that studying history without ever trying to improve our world with that knowledge seems like intellectual masturbation.
  • We may not be able to change the past but we can learn from past mistakes by using history to remind us.
  • its worth studying past failures and mistakes
  • In order to learn how to make the world better we need to no the mistakes of the past and try to see what caused the wars and hardship of the past so that is why we study it, if we did not no the past then we would continually make the same mistakes over and over again and not able to see why this happens
  • you need to know some, but don't waste time learning it all because you can't believe everything you read once you go past a certain date
  • I believe studying history is important. "Those who forget the past are condemned to repeat it." George Santayana On the other hand, I also like author Terry Goodkind's statement, "History has a way of getting muddled by those controlling the teaching of it." Those two ideas are bound to intersect somewhere. And strictly speaking, experience - first-hand knowledge of past errors, miscalculations, theories proven wrong - is one of a researcher's most valuable tools.
  • Just a couple of quotes (historical of course) to strike home the importance of history. "If I have seen further it is by standing on ye shoulders of Giants." - Sir Isaac Newton "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." - George Santayana If you never learn anything from the past then you have to waste time relearning the same old stuff. I'd rather let someone else in history do the heavy lifting and just sit back and read about it. That way I'm ready to go and have a better chance at success in whatever I do. Hope this helps.
  • There is a saying somewhere to the effect that "those who ignore history are doomed to repeat it". I'll leave it to you to google it and find out the exact wording and who said it. And if yhou think that history is a waste of time, I would like to remind you that we are ALL a product of history. Your parents conceived you and you exist today as the result. And if you think that that has no further bearing on the present or future, consider these historical facts: 1) At some point in your 'history' you have injured yourself, if only by smacking your thumb with a hammer, burning a finger on a hot stove, or dropping something on a toe. These events taught you a valuable lesson which to this day guides you in your decision making process about risk management. 2) At some point in your 'history', you have learned how to read. Reading provides you with valuable information and insights form a vast panopoly of sources: historical, mathematical, literature, creative writing, engineering, art, and more. These give you the tools to research 'new things which can be beneficial for mankind' by learning from others so you can build upon their achievements without making their mistakes or repeating what they've already done. 3) Understanding the history of how our planet formed it helping us to understand how the universe around us works. 4) Understanding human cultural history helps us to understand each other better, which eases conflicts. 5) Understanding human cultural history helps us to remember the past tragedies and to avoid them in the future. From a military standpoint I could tell you of how understanding history has avoided armed conflict and possibly war, especially the dreaded nuclear "World War Three". So, no I do not think studying history is a waste of time.
  • Studying the past is how we connect the dots to here, what went wrong and what we can do to prevent it from going wrong again. So few people know anything about history anymore, even recent history. Perhaps a foundational answer to why everything is so wrong today (Homeland Security, the Patriot Act, ignoring habeus corpus, etc.)
  • Okay, first off, I hope it's not a waste of time or I need to seriously reconsider my major and intended field of work. Second, I doubt it's a waste of time because the study of history IS beneficial for mankind. If we know about our past, it gives us direction for our future. Besides that, how much have we learned from the study of history? We've learned battle tactics, strategy, past mistakes, basics of human evolution and development of society. Not to mention ancient folk remedies that turned out to work (like Quinine), patterns of natural disasters and changes in the world around us (where would we be if no one had looked over ancient texts and realized that constellations changed? The center of the universe, probably), architectural concepts... the list goes on and on. Lastly, even if history didn't help mankind, would that be grounds for nixing it from our lives? By that logic, classrooms would be devoid of art, music, gym class, all because it's a waste of time. In fact, is being on AB beneficial to mankind? No? Then maybe we should all get off and research a cure for cancer. My point is, history is not something we should ignore or belittle. Yes, it happened in the past. But I think we can all agree that the past has power. Plus, without the study of history, we wouldn't have the Mel Brooks classic History of the World. And a world without that gem is not a world I want to live in.
  • The problem is that history, as taught in school, is presented wrong. Instead of presenting what happened and why, they make students learn the dates of wars and the names of rulers. It is the wrong way to instill an interest.
  • Yo. The reason we study history is, despite what it seems like, history is beneficial. First of all, it requires someone to think about cause and effect, and critical thinking that no other class offers. The REAL point of school is to make you think a certain way, history makes you think in a different way than ANY other class. Or at least high-level history does. Plus history you can apply the philosophy of "learn by your mistakes". Look at Iraq vs Vietnam. Ridiculously similar fights. One big difference to save civilian lives and not get the reaction the American soldiers from Vietnam recieved on their return; is that instead of everyone automatically being an enemy (vietnam), the policy of "A friendly until they shoot at you". I dunno if the Iraq policy is that cut and dry, but it's something to that effect. In short, the point of history is that so you can "learn from your mistakes, or the mistakes of others" pretty much. It's only really daily useful for politicians , but then again, how often do the masses use Geometry in daily life?
  • If people is takeng away from their identity, they lack a sense of belonging and therefore they can be manipulated, the history teached at school it has as a purpose to serve the interest of the state providing it, so yes history can be manipulated, and yes, u cant believe everything you read because everyone writes to an specific purpose, but when you can see the whole picture of an event, you can make your own conclusion of it. History is something important to study, I live in a country where we as society just keep making the same mistake every 6 years for the last 200 years, and people will still think is something new... History, is one mean to emancipate! power to the people! yeah I do study History at University xD
  • History is a pack of lies we play on the dead. We have a mountain of information built on a molehill of evidence. There are much more interesting things that have happened over history, than happen in our short life spans. Problem is that academic history classes tend to focus on uninteresting factual information, like which king/president and battles/wars which hold little relevance for new generations. There is still an enormous well of information in history, some interesting, some relevant, that we don't utilise.
  • It does make one wonder....if we are studying history, why do we keep doing the same things over and over?
  • Studying history isint a waste of time.Properly presented and free of all opinions other than the researcher studying the event for example at the time.History is a eye opening look at what we as a people were.Also,what we could be in the future.The waste of time is studying and NOT learning.Interesting question to ponder.
  • Not at all. Let's say a rapist or murderer comes into your neighborhood - wouldn't you like to know, or would you just "look forward"? Without history, we'd basically be ignorant rats running into the same traps every generation. Slow and steady beats hasty and ignorant everytime.
  • "Those who do not study history are doomed to repeat it." For instance, look at the parallels between Hitler's Germany in the 1930s and Bush's US form 2001-2009. I think if more Americans understood history, we would not be where we are right now.
  • I am tempted to think studying history as a waste of time because I am weak in this subject. However on reflection, I think it is beneficial to revisit human history so as to learn and to appreciate the faithfulness of God through the generations.
  • How will you know what is beneficial for mankind with no history of what has worked and not worked? With no history of knowing how anything works? No history of how to research even? That's like saying you'd trust a newborn baby to lead the world, before they have learned anything, including how to speak! Even language is history.
  • Philosopher George Santayana believed those that ignore history are condemned the same mistakes. IOW learn from the past for the future.

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