Do we need to understand the past to solve the problems of the present or future? (현재나 미래의 문제를 해결하기 위해서 과거를 이해해야 하나?) |
It could be debatable whether or not we need to grasp the past to resolve the problems of the present or future. Some people say that learning the past is not helpful to solve the problems related to the present or future. However, in opposition to this view, I strongly agree with the idea that we should figure out the past to solve the problems of the present or future for the following reasons. To begin with, we can learn much from the past in formulating solutions to current and future issues. That is, by understanding the causal relationship of important social or political events, we are albe to cope with similar situations. To illustrate, most of laborers in served in extremely poor circumstances factories in the early 20th century. Under those conditions, basic human right was often ignored. In addition to that, laborers were deadly wounded, even died due to poor condition of the work places. When people realized the problems with workers, they started to demand inalienable human right and better conditions of the work places, and to form labor unions in order to struggle to gain justifiable right of wokrers. If it had not been for their effort to understand the past problems, present-day laborers’ right would still be ignored. On top of that, we should bear in mind that the present or future is the result of the past. In this respect, we could create a variety of useful alternatives with the aid of appreciating the past. To take a historical example, Einstein famous for the theory of relativity tended to do research for himself. In particular, when he was engrossed in the formulation of the theory of everything, he did not interact with other scientists. As a result, he extremely sticked to his own thoughts and solutions, and boiled down to failing to create the theory. But, other scientists who cooperate aggressivelywith one another nearly accomplished the creation of the theory. The reason why Einstein failed was that he did not realize interdisciplinary cooperation generated masterful ways to solve the problems and he restricted his perspecitve. From this case, we can avoid similar erroneous judgment through knowing misleading results of the past. To sum up, I wholeheartedly believe that we need to grasp the past to resolve the problems of the present or future because the past projects much useful knowledge for settling out social or political concerns and alternatives to current or future challenges. On the whole, we should keep in mind that our past or future is greatly based on the past.
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