Alabdullatif !

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Abdulrahman Alabdullatif
Dr. Javier Cardoza-Kon
Portland - FRINQ
03 May 2016

The Use of History

From hunting and gathering: the simple life of pastoral societies, to horticultural
societies, and then to domestication and civilization. From feudalism to capitalism, and from
riding horses, to horse carts, and then cars. The future cannot be predicted, yet history gives us a
sense of satisfaction by answering some of the questions that ache us about it. To some, history
gives humanity faith and knowledge, whereas to others, history is nothing but fiction. Clearly,
history has an important impact on our daily lives in many ways, including in our social
wellbeing and our beliefs.
One of the most famous writers in philosophy and literature is Friedrich Nietzsche.
Friedrich was born in 1844 in a small village in Germany. He excelled in his studies and in
learning ancient Greek. This helped him become a professor at the University of Basel while
only in his twenties. After a while, he eventually gave up his job and moved to Sils Maria in the
Swiss Alps, where he dedicated most of his time working on his books, which did not sell back
then, and were not as appreciated as they are today.

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In the essay On the Advantage and the Disadvantage of History for Life, Nietzsche
emphasizes the necessity to live historically while having the ability to forget. He compares two
types of humans: the unhistorical and the historical. He states unhistorically, for it gets up in the
present like a number without any odd fraction left over; it does not know how to play a part,
hides nothing, and appears in each moment exactly and entirely what it is. Thus a beast can be
nothing other than honest. (Nietzsche, 32) He describes one who does not believe in history as a
number in a society that is irrationally dedicated fully to the present, neglecting past
experiences that could be valuable to ones life. As far as we know, humans have five senses to
experience their surroundings and an imagination to picture what could be farther. A collection of
these experiences creates knowledge and helps finding ways to prevent the unwanted. Though
we are privileged to have been handed down precious knowledge from generations long gone,
some still abandon history, even personal history, and choose not to learn from it.
On the other hand, Nietzsche also criticizes the negative attachment to history that is
stopping humanity from living meaningful lives. He establishes elegantly a middle ground for
how much one should relate to history.
A person who wanted to feel utterly and only historically would be like someone
who had been forced to abstain from sleep or like the beast that is to continue its
life only from rumination to constantly repeated rumination. Moreover, it is
possible to live almost without remembering, indeed, to live happily, as the beast
demonstrates; however, it is completely and utterly impossible to live at all
without forgetting. (Nietzsche, 34)

It is encouraged of humans to learn from, and create history. Nietzsche describes someone who
wants live everything historically as if they are ruminating, as if they are wasting time by

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trying to experience every moment, so when they grieve, they grieve for long, and when they try
to live, their obsession with experimenting holds them back again. Living the same memories
repeatedly. Trying to find truth solely in the past, and excluding the present of their experiment.
One must establish a middle ground in order to live historically with the ability to forget.
Forgetting tends to be interpreted as a negative habit, but for some occasions, forgetting
is necessary for one to live happily, or as Nietzsche states to live at all. For example, imagine if
you remembered every different location you have parked your car in a given parking lot, when
really you are only concerned with where you parked today. This adaptive quality of forgetting
allows one not only to stay up to date with current information, but also to forget information
that will be irrelevant in the future. Though this ability to forget is part of the unconscious mind,
one should try to use it consciously depending on the occasion. Not every moment is worth
living, and some are meant for one to absorb the essence of, but not every detail. Such ideology
tends to be most applicable and encouraged in undesirable occasions.
Undesirable occasions are hard to detect, and could be extremely difficult to learn from.
Ones attachment to history might cloud ones overall judgement of a situation, which can impact
ones life negatively, and hinder ones pursuit of happiness. Expressing anger in a way that is
hurtful to others is a good example of this. If done repeatedly, expressing anger could effect
ones social life, which is one source of happiness. These small events are usually forgotten,
and unlearned from. In some life events, forgetting is beneficial; forgetting the moment, not the
lesson.

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History benefits us in many ways, and being historical is beneficial for ones success. A
good use of being historical is what Nietzsche calls Amor fati: the love of ones fate. In his book
The Gay Science, he states:
I want to learn more and more to see as beautiful what is necessary in things; then I shall be one of
those who make things beautiful. Amor fati: let that be my love henceforth! I do not want to wage
war against what is ugly. I do not want to accuse; I do not even want to accuse those who accuse.
Looking away shall be my only negation. And all in all and on the whole: some day I wish to be
only a Yes-sayer (Nietzsche, 20).

He claims that for one to live a meaningful life, one must look back to their personal history and
accept that both suffering and happy moments are meant to happen, past life events can not be
changed, and one should not want them to be any different. By reaching such realizations, one
can establish self-reflection, which sets personal moral standards.
One could argue that for history to set the moral standards of ones self, one should
surround ones self with only one perspective of history. At the first glance, this argument might
seem valid, but for one to learn from history, one should try to learn all perspectives of history
and come up with personal realizations. George Santayana states Those who do not learn
history are doomed to repeat it; claiming that history repeats itself unless we learn from it.
History should not be repeated, and if this were to happen, humans will be showing future
generations that they understood history, but never learned from it.
The word history is not limited to the ancient ages, rather, one may also learn from ones
personal history. Personal history can shape ones beliefs and change the way they look at the
world. A good example for this is a comparison between Locke, and Hobbes theory of the state
of nature. The state of nature is a distribution of hypothetical conditions of what the lives of

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people might have been like before societies. Hobbes claims that the state of nature is a state of
war. No morality exists, and everyone lives in constant fear. Because of this fear, no one is really
free, but, since even the weakest could kill the strongest men are equal. Whereas Locke
claims that "The state of Nature has a law of Nature to govern it(Locke, 14), and that law is
reason. Locke believes that reason teaches that "no one ought to harm another in his life, liberty,
and or property" (Locke,16) ; and that transgressions of this may be punished. His view of the
state of nature is partly taken from Christian belief (unlike Hobbes, whose philosophy is not
dependent upon any prior theology). This shows that humans tend to shape their current beliefs
based on past experiences. This does not justify making the wrong decisions in life, because one
should always consult the present and the past when making decisions.
Justifying wrong decisions by relating to ones past experiences is not valid. Surely,
personal history shapes ones beliefs, and create ones phycological character, however, the
process of shaping character relies heavily on the interpretation of ones experiences. One would
interpret a situation as it is, without trying to analyze the reasons behind its occurrence, whereas
others would over-analyze it to reach either confusion, or surrender. A good interpretation of any
situation falls in the middle point of these two ends.
Also, surrendering to history and relating to it in every aspect of life is harmful. One
should always be open to change; as history was a change back then, but one should also
consider history in making changes. Past experiences should be used to set the living standards,
and improve the outcome of the present, which is the future.
To relate to this, we must look at Nietzsches personal history that might have inspired
him to look deeper into the advantages and the disadvantages of history. Certainly, there are

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reasons to think that his philosophical attention to the past reflects a fixation running down at
the level of his own psychological character. His professional field, classical philology, is itself a
major statement of his special fascination with the past. One should take seriously the oddity in
this, that a philosopher who later prided himself on being so far ahead and futural should have
originally occupied himself with not just history but ancient history. Famously, he later regretted
this decisionand that he hadnt read in the sciences instead. So he expresses a retrospective
regret at his own retrospectiveness (Richardson, 89).
In conclusion, humans are privileged to be historical creatures, and one should use
history correctly to benefit in life. One should not overuse it or abuse it, but use it just enough for
it to be valuable. How little you know of human happinessyou comfortable people. The secret
of a fulfilled life is: live dangerously! Build your cities on the slopes of Mount
Vesuvius! (Nietzsche, ) One should enjoy life and live the moment, but be historical when
necessary. Life is beautiful and full of events, and it is on us to know which ones to forget.

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Work Cited

"Hobbes, Locke and Rousseau Comparison Grid." 1215. Web. 20 May 2016.
Jones, Josh. "What Is the Good Life? Plato, Aristotle, Nietzsche, & Kant." Open Culture. Web.
20 May 2016.
Locke, John. "Two Treatises of Government." 28 July 2010. Web. 20 May 2016.
Miller, Alexandria. "On the Advantage and Disadvantage of History for Life." - Modernism Lab
Essays. Web. 20 May 2016.
Nietzsche, Friedrich. "On the Advantage and The Disadvantage of History for Life."
Records.viu.ca. 2010. Web. 20 May 2016.
Nietzsche, Friedrich Wilhelm. The Gay Science. 1882. Print.