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World History
Will and Ariel Durant wrote, The Lessons of History of which the audio edition says, “It contains the Durant's view of history, as perhaps the most vital form of philosophy, dealing not with conjecture, the odds and hypotheses of human nature and behavior, but rather with realities and data derived from how we as a species have behaved over the last six thousand or so years.” (The Lessons of History, Will Durant, audio edition, 1:49).
“History is the record of the activities of mankind and it has two sides. One is the crimes and absurdities the other is the contributions to civilization. The lasting developments which enabled each generation to proceed with a larger heritage than the one before.” (The Lessons of History, Will Durant, audio edition, 10:40)
Mr Durant points out that, “The meaning of history is that it is man laid bare. You see there are two ways of arriving at a large perspective, which would be a definition of philosophy, a large perspective. One is by studying the external world through science in all its aspects. You come to some general conclusion then the way Hebert Spencer did approaching it from that point of view, as an engineer. The other is to examine how man has behaved for the last six or ten thousand years and consequently history becomes the best guide we have to what man is and we have to presume that one of the lessons of history is that he continues to behave, basically, in each generation as he behaved in the generations before. His instincts are the same, the basic situations that he faces are the same. Naturally he makes similar responses… so that the present is the past rolled up for action and the past is the present unrolled for understanding.” (The Lessons of History, Will Durant, audio edition, 11:31)
"The farther backward you can look, the farther forward you are likely to see"
Winston Churchill
Last Update: February 14, 2007