Our Predicament, and How History Can Help Javier Ergueta September, 2011.
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Transcript of Our Predicament, and How History Can Help Javier Ergueta September, 2011.
Our Predicament, and How History Can Help
Javier Ergueta
September, 2011
Our predicament:
QuickTime™ and aH.264 decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
You too may have noticed the world you’re waking up to is in
kind of a mess.
In just the last century:
• World Wars I and II
• The Cold War
• 9/11
• Global warming / “weirding”
How the heck did it happen?
Where do you look for answers…
• A scientific theory?
• A mathematical theorem?
• A work of art?
• A religious doctrine?
To explain how the tiger got in the bathroom…
…The Hangover rewinds the action and traces a causal
chain of events.
“If you would understand anything, observe its
beginning and its development.”
– Aristotle
“The past is the present, rolled out for understanding.”
“Those who cannot remember history are doomed to repeat it.”
– George Santayana
There are just three small problems with regard to most
Americans and history.
They don’t know it.
They don’t care.
• “History is bunk”– Henry Ford (the Steve Jobs of the early
20th century)
• “We Americans don’t need to study history…we make it.”– Donald Rumsfeld, Sec. of Defense, 2001-7
• “You’re history.” [You no longer matter.]– Popular saying
They don’t even know what it is.
• “History is so boring, because it’s all about memorizing names and dates.”– Common student objection
“To praise a historian for his accuracy is like praising an architect
for using well-seasoned timber or properly-mixed concrete in his
building. It is a necessary condition of his work, but not his essential
function.”
– E. H. Carr
What is history?
“History is a series of arguments to be debated, not a body of data to be
recorded or a set of facts to be memorized. Thus controversy in
historical interpretation is at the heart of its value.”
– Prof. Robin W. Winks
In short, history is:
• A conversation whose goal is understanding the past.
• Not primarily an area of study, but a dimension of all other studies!
History: part of every subject!
• “History differs from the other disciplines in having an approach and not an area of its own.”– Leonard Krieger
• “History is not only a particular branch of knowledge, but a particular mode and method of knowledge in other branches.”– Lord Acton
Properly understood, history begins with the
Big Bang.
Different subject disciplines (AOKs) feed into a single
narrative by specializing in different kinds of evidence.
Key events, and the new sciences that focus on their effects:
The Big Bang – Physics
Era of Supernovas – Chemistry
Birth of the solar system – Geology
Life appears – Biology
Primates appear – Archaeology
Language appears – Linguistics
Modern humans appear – Psychology
History is the only practical way that we can bring all knowledge into a single coherent framework.
But this can only really happen in one place…
…between human ears!
Information is but the building materials of knowledge.
Learning only happens when these are assembled into a
sturdy, useful structure.
You have to make it happen.
Where I can help:
• Propose stimulating new information
• Point out connections
• Suggest possible frameworks
Focus of this course: 4 levels
• H. of Germany, Italy, Russia, Egypt, Persia
• H. of W. European, Russian and Islamic civilizations
• H. of Western Afro-Eurasia
• H. of humanity
My own effort at a unifying account…
• Some central branches
• And a good part of the trunk!