the only thing we learn from history is that we learn nothing from history

No one knows where is Hitler after he fled. However we do know the atrocities he committed against the Jews, against mankind. The amount of damage and destruction both mental and physical because of the wars is unaccountable. Mankind has learned that nothing good comes out from war. There is no one right or wrong in war. There is no one right or wring in history. History is the view of different people complied into a document. G.W.F. Hegel’s saying ‘ the only thing we learn from history is that we learn nothing from history’ applies to some things concerning history but not all.

We learn a lot from history, whether it is something as big as the discovery of an atom or something as small as a method of recycling of paper, we learn a lot from history. History teaches us the existences of different tribes, their culture and hence their origin. We can learn where we came from through historical evidences of different tribes. It is not allowed for women to get up from their bed for forty days after they have given birth to a child in Hinduism. This is not related to the religion it self but history. Since the woman is still healing she was not allowed to get up from her bed in the past. This was slowly modified into the religion it self, and even though the new generation may not know it, they still follow it. We are incorporating history into our daily lives an are constantly learning from it. Gunpowder was used by the Japanese in the early 5^th century and is still used now in fire works. Today’s scientists look back into history to make progress in fields like medicine and mathematics. The Vedic science of medicine and mathematics are more effective than this era’s counting and medicines.

However history itself it not reliable as there are different viewpoints each historian gives. Like in theory of relativity when two events occur at an instant of time, a person may see them occur at the same time but another person will not see it occur at the same instant of time. Neither of them are wrong but there is no right answer. Lack of methods of preserving local dialects and cultures have eroded evidences of tribes existing and left scientists to assume many events occurring in tribes. We cannot learn from what does not exist. Interpretation of certain texts is a lot of work. Even the slightest errors in translation can result in a completely wrong interpretation of the text.

One cannot always look at history to learn something. There is a clear distinction between what is half true and what is completely false. It is up to the one reading that particular historical evidence to decide whether it is true or not. One cannot sleep overnight and reason out history as mathematics.