History, by its definition, is the study of past events. Considering that everything that has ever happened in the history of the universe until this very moment is now past, we could say that History, following its definition, is the study of everything. Sounds crazy, but it can be true. In order to be past there must be a present, but is there really a present? Every word that you read in this blog post is now the past and every single moment that you lived up to until this point is now the past; it is history. If everything that has ever happened can be consider past, what is the present then? How long does it take for the present to become past? How long is the present? So many questions that can’t be answered… But back to the unit. If History is the study of the past and the past is everything, therefore history studies everything. Well, not quite. As we know, humans have created other areas of knowledge to study specific parts of what is, or will be, the past. When an astronomer studies the Big Ben, it is History. When a physics students performs and experiment, it becomes History. When an English student writes and essay, it documents history. So, all of the other AoK are just a part of history? And isn’t History also a part of History? That is up to you to tell.
Before anythings gets to deep into this conversation, it is necessary to understand ‘What are Historical Facts,’ as Carl Becker wrote. The author claims that Historical Facts are actually anything that is relevant to the outcome of different Facts. He uses the example of Caesar crossing the Rubicon, which by itself doesn’t have any meaning. The crossing of the Rubicon, then, is a Historical Fact because it confirmed Caesar’s treason. Becker also emphasizes the role of memory in his thesis, and that if it wasn’t for it there would be no history. Here is an excerpt of his work which is fairly disturbing: “What happens when I wake up in the morning is that my memory reaches out into the past and gathers together those images of past events, of past objects seen, of words spoken and of thoughts though in the past, which are necessary to give me an ordered world to live in, necessary to orient me in my personal world.” (…) “Every man has a knowledge of history in this sense, which is the only vital sense in which he can have a knowledge of history.” (From What are Historical Facts by Carl Becker).
History is the study of the past. But was there any past before we were born? If it’s not in our own memory, can it be considered History then? In order to conserve the memory of others, we create memorials, museums, textbooks, libraries and anything that can possibly store the memories of past events. These memories are captured through one of the ways of knowing, and recorded, usually, with language. Because of this, documents from different people may vary greatly about a single event, and that’s the beauty of History. It’s not black and white; It’s gray. History is not the study of everything; It is the study of memories, which are combined in a way to better understand the past of our species, and to make sense of a never existing present.
Good, Felipe. I like the topic. You wandered at first, but by the end I could see where you were going. But you need to edit your post after you write it so that the reader can see where you're going from the beginning. In this way you could have focused more tightly on your question of whether history is the past of the study of the past. But don't worry, that's why I'm having you practice. It's hard to rein in your ideas so that you take on just what can be handled in one unit and learn to get into it as quickly and directly as you can, without losing complexity.
ReplyDeleteAnd I really like your ideas about memory, that we create memorials, etc., to preserve the memory of others. Nice.
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