Practice Essay #3: Understanding the Past

Question: An understanding of the past is necessary for solving the problems of the present.  Explain what you think the above statement means.  Describe a specific situation in which solving a current problem might not require an understanding of the past.  Discuss what you think determines whether or not the past should be considered in solving the problems of the present.

Answer:
As the saying goes history is bound to repeat itself. With this in mind, the statement suggests that it is important to learn from the past and use it as a learning experience to ensure that the same mistake is not repeated. Taking this a step further, it can be said that further improvements can be made as well upon the approach taken in the past when seeking to solve the problems of the present. A simple example of this would be trying to solve a complicated puzzle given that there is no prior knowledge of it. During the early stages, a fair amount of errors and trials will need to be undertaken. It is through these errors and trials that learning takes place and is to be avoided in the present or future for it does not give the desired results.

Some current problems, however, might not require an understanding of the past in order to be solved. An instance in which this is true is when the situation is unique from those experienced in the past due to difference in circumstances or various other reasons. Take for example the possible energy crisis which the world might soon have to face. As we continue to use up the supply of energy resources such as coal, oil, and etc, new resources will need to be sought after to replace that which we are using up. While there are various lessons that we can learn from the past concerning the use of the supply of energy resources, an understanding of the past is not quite necessary for solving the problems of the present. 

There are certain situations where an understanding of the past is necessary for solving problems of the present. For when we don’t learn from our mistakes, they are often times repeated. However, there are also certain situations in which the current problems can be solved without an understanding of the past. So, the thing that seems to determine whether the past should or should not be considered in solving the problems of the present come down to applicability of the past to the current problems and the lessons that can be learned from those experiences.