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Recommended: Why knowledge of history is important

A compare and contrast analysis of history and human sciences shows that the two areas of knowledge are closely related. In my essay, I will discuss whether history and human sciences each have one specific task. Do they deal with the past or the future only? My essay will include what role language and emotion play in the two areas of knowledge, and this will answer why we study them in school. In the end, I hope to give an answer to what task the future and the past plays in the two areas of knowledge.
Firstly, I want to discuss the word “task”: Do history and human sciences each serve one purpose only? I think that an area of knowledge has more to it. We use its methods to answer questions we might have or to find solutions to problems in order to ultimately know more about our own existence. An area of knowledge therefore has multiple tasks. A knowledge issue to consider is that all though an area of knowledge can be associated with either the past or the future, it actually needs to consider both knowledge from the past and have an urge to influence the future. Why do we study history? History is more than understanding the past. In history class, we discuss past events in order to get a better understanding of today’s society. Past meaning a selected collection of facts from yesterday. History is linked to nationality and pride, we should keep this in mind when reading history. In TOK class, we came to a conclusion that history is taught in school because students need to learn how wars and constitutions led to today’s society. Through this education we also get a sense of what is morally right and wrong because we can trace events back in time and see how some decisions led to good or bad things before. In history class we...

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...ledge is found by accident. We sometimes find more than we looked for, or found more than we had expected.
Both the historian and the human scientist are trying to understand the past in order to change the future. The two areas of knowledge have a strong connection. They both assemble information that is put together in some way to make sense. They are both areas of knowledge where the knowledge is passed on and is primarily not first-hand knowledge. The difference between them is that the historian has more power to change the past than the human scientist has to change the future. Another is that history is more linked to our identities and national feelings and is be affected by this. The quote describes the way that they are taught in high school, but not in TOK. We learn about the past because we need to be aware in the future of what mistakes are possible.

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