Wednesday, January 13, 2010

ToK/IRL

Can history provide a guide to understanding contemporary affairs? Can it provide a guide to the future? What might be “the lessons of history” for future generations?

History can provide a guide to understanding contemporary affairs, albeit a very rough one. Although historical events cannot be predicted exactly using past events, these past events do affect current ones. For example, censorship in China is discussed in a BBC article at http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8124735.stm . The specific way in which information would be censored (through the internet) was not a repeat of history, but the idea of censoring was existent in Communist China.

In some case the prediction is not very accurate at all, for example at http://worldatwar.net/timeline/other/league18-46.html it notes that Iraq and Iran joined a peace pact with other eastern nations, yet that fact alone cannot be used to predict today's middle eastern wars. Other knowledge is needed.


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