The Significance of the Past

Bibliographic Data

ID21876298
AuthorsGuy Kahane (0000-0002-6490-3247, University of Oxford, corresponding author)
Year2021
Volume7
Issue4
Pages582-600
Publication date2021-01-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of the American Philosophical Association (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 2053-4477 • E-ISSN: 2053-4485
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/apa.2020.38
OpenAlexW3194202837
LanguageEN
Citations received6
References cited27

The past is deeply important to many of us. But our concern about history can seem puzzling and needs justification. After all, the past cannot be changed: we can help the living needy, but the tears we shed for the long dead victims of past tragedies help no one. Attempts to justify our concern about history typically take one of two opposing forms. It is assumed either that such concern must be justified in instrumental or otherwise self-centered and present-centered terms or that our interest in history must be utterly disinterested and pursued for its own sake. But neither approach can fully explain, or justify, our concern about the past. I propose a third approach, on which the past matters because it contains much that is of value—all those past people and the things they did or had endured—and this value calls for our fitting response. In short: the significance of the past is past significance

Economics · Environmental ethics · Epistemology · Positive economics · Anthropological Studies and Insights · Computer Science · History · Philosophy · Philosophy, History, and Historiography · Vietnamese History and Culture Studies

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