![]() ![]() We are pleased to make available a series of informative pages about the highly significant and, we would venture to suggest, It crystallized ideas and projected the pattern of things to come it determined the course of the following century." Such dynastic sovereignty being displaced in time by Constitutional Monarchies and Republics where democracy applies. Some men fought (Knights) and some men prayed (Priests). More recently Europe featured Monarchies and Empires - where some men worked, To enter into trade within and between city-states. Individuals would tend to behave considerately towards their group-fellows, be capable of co-operation in defence of their group and be capable of entering into personal relationships and economic activity.Ĭity-states can be held to have been more viable than hunter-gatherer tribes because there could have been greater food security through stored agricultural surpluses and more opportunity "Tripartism" would support persons living out their lives long, long ago in tribes and in city-states.Ĭapacities of Honesty, Manhood and Good-fellowship would all be highly beneficial to persons living in such small-scale Human groupings as tribes and in city-states. On another of our pages ~ Understanding the Past and the Present ~ suggestions are made that such Georg Hegel, 1770-1831, German philosopher, The Philosophy of History (1837) ![]() "The first glance at History convinces us that the actions of men proceed from their needs, their passions, their characters and talents Īnd impresses us with the belief that such needs, passions and interests are the sole spring of actions." The quotes from Emerson are reminiscent of a line from another "leading voice of intellectual culture" - William Shakespeare. (This dates from January - February, 1828) Some are intent on commercial speculations some engage warmly in political contention some are found all day long at their books … Our neighbours are occupied with employments of infinite diversity. Each is absorbed in the prospect of good accruing to himself but each is no less contributing to the utmost of his ability to fix & adorn human civilization. In all districts of all lands, in all the classes of communities thousands of minds are intently occupied, the merchant in his compting house, the mechanist over his plans, the statesman at his map, his treaty, & his tariff, the scholar in the skilful history & eloquence of antiquity, each stung to the quick with the desire of exalting himself to a hasty & yet unfound height above the level of his peers. (Journal entry made between October and December, 1823) Remove hope, & the world becomes a blank and rottenness. The anxious patriot who stood out for his country to the last & devised in the last beleagured citadel, profound schemes for its deliverance and aggrandizement, will sheathe his sword and blot his fame. The scholar will extinguish his midnight lamp, the merchant will furl his white sails & bid them seek the deep no more. Imagine hope to be removed from the human breast & see how Society will sink, how the strong bands of order & improvement will be relaxed & what a deathlike stillness would take the place of the restless energies that now move the world. "We spend a great deal of time studying history, which, let's face it, is mostly the history of stupidity." Have been expressed by Ralph Waldo Emerson ~ aka the Sage of Concord ~ are considered. The last few quotations, on the other hand, show an appreciation that deeply important lessons about Human Existence can actuallyįollowing on from these initially dismissive, and then aspirational, overviews of the possibility of learning lessons of history some important ideas about the Study of History that On the first part of this page some quotes are presented showing how some observers express disillusionment about Humanity'sĪll-too-frequent failure to learn worthwhile lessons from history! Some of those would be more practically useful, in terms of contributing to the normal and decent functioning of well-meaning societies, than others. When it comes to ' the lessons of history ' there are doubtless many things we could aspire to learn. How possible is it to learn lessons of history? It enables us to control, not society, but ourselves - a much more important thing it prepares us to live more humanely in the presentĪnd to meet rather than to foretell the future." "The value of history is, indeed, not scientific but moral: by liberalizing the mind, by deepening the sympathies, by fortifying the will, ![]()
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