I'm a historicist, but ...
1. Self-reflection and self-discipline
The purpose of writing this article is half for self-reflection and self-discipline.
Not only historians and researchers, but every person has studied history to varying degrees.
Some people probably studied about history from their school teachers in elementary, middle, and high school.
In addition to school studies, one needs to learn a certain amount of history in order to know something.
For example, if you are interested in China or the US, you need to know a certain amount of Chinese or the US history.
When studying any new field, not only foreign countries, it should be very beneficial to study its historical background.
Political history, economic history, cultural history, not only social sciences but also natural sciences, industrial history such as the automobile industry, etc.
2. Significance of studying history
Regardless of whether in the East or the West, the significance of studying history is often said to be.
What is history?
Maybe you know, "it is a continuous process of interaction between the historian and his facts, an unending dialogue between the present and the past." (From What Is History? by E. H. Carr)
One concept that more logically explains the significance of studying history is path dependence.
Of course, there are various path dependencies in the world, each of which has various circumstances and conditions, and there are various ways to explain them.
・Barriers to Change: https://tanakah17191928.blogspot.com/2022/02/barriers-to-change.html
・Barriers to Change: https://tanakah17191928.blogspot.com/2022/02/barriers-to-change.html
3. Studying history can not help us look the future
Although it's important to study history, we should not be overconfident about it.
I just wanted to write this sentence.
No matter how much we study, in the end, we humans can not know what will happen in the future.
・Human being can't look the future: https://tanakah17191928.blogspot.com/2020/05/human-being-cant-look-future.html
That is a reason why we should at least study history and science.
The accuracy of a prediction, whether it comes true or not, is, in other words, only a matter of probability.
For example, compared to gamble, which is unpredictable in the short term whether it will go up or down, a long-term investment has a higher probability of success.
From another angle, it could be said that the risk is spread out over time.
I'm not an investment affiliate earner, so I will stop this discussion here.
- To read this article in Japanese
- To read this article in Japanese