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Single Idea 19593

[filed under theme 25. Social Practice / E. Policies / 5. Education / d. Study of history ]

Full Idea

What is it that shapes a person if not his life history? And in the same way a splendid person is shaped by nothing other than world history. Many people live better in the past and in the future than in the present.

Gist of Idea

Persons are shaped by a life history; splendid persons are shaped by world history

Source

Novalis (Last Fragments [1800], 15)

Book Ref

Novalis: 'Philosophical Writings', ed/tr. Stoljar,M.M. [SUNY 1997], p.155


A Reaction

Clearly there is a lot to be said for splendid people who live entirely in the present (such as jazz musicians). Some people do have an awesomely wide historical perspective on their immediate lives. Palaeontology is not the master discipline though!


The 19 ideas with the same theme [ideas about the study and teaching of history]:

It is heresy to teach that history repeats every 36,000 years [Anon (Par)]
Persons are shaped by a life history; splendid persons are shaped by world history [Novalis]
We should all agree that there is reason in history [Hegel]
History is the progress of the consciousness of freedom [Hegel]
Human history must always be studied in relation to industry and exchange [Marx/Engels]
Most historians are trapped in the illusions of their own epoch [Marx/Engels]
The history of all existing society is the history of class struggles [Marx/Engels]
History does not concern what really happened, but supposed events, which have all the influence [Nietzsche]
Our growth is too subtle to perceive, and long events are too slow for us to grasp [Nietzsche]
After history following God, or a people, or an idea, we now see it in terms of animals [Nietzsche]
We should evaluate the past morally [Nietzsche]
Dividing history books into separate chapters is disastrous [Weil]
Despite endless suggestions, no one has found a goal for history [Cioran]
History is wonderfully devoid of meaning [Cioran]
History lacks 'meaning', but it can be analysed in terms of its struggles [Foucault]
The arrival of the news media brought history to an end [Baudrillard]
In the 18th century history came to be seen as progressive, rather than cyclical [Hösle]
The more you know about history, the harder it becomes to explain [Harari]
History teaches us that the present was not inevitable, and shows us the possibilities [Harari]