首页
登录
职称英语
Some Theories of History I. The problems of understandi
Some Theories of History I. The problems of understandi
游客
2023-12-08
16
管理
问题
Some Theories of History
I. The problems of understanding history
History with written records: the records may be【B1】______ and inaccurate.【B1】______
History before writing: we can only make a partial reconstruction.
II. Some theories have been proposed to give coherence to human history
Theory 1
Man continually【B2】______ in terms of his potentials and【B2】______
his abilities to actualize these potentials.
Modern man is superior to his ancestors
【B3】______, physically and morally.【B3】______
A branch of the theory: man rose to a【B4】______ before.【B4】______
Theory 2
Man’s history is a【B5】______ of stages of development, whose pattern is【B5】______
the rise and fall of civilization.
Whether modern man is superior to his ancestors depends on
what【B6】______ of civilization he is in.【B6】______
Theory 3
In this theory, the first two theories【B7】______ with each other.【B7】______
It is known as the【B8】______ of history.【B8】______
Theory 4
This theory views human history from the【B9】______【B9】______
of socioeconomic groups.
Human history can be interpreted as the【B10】______ of class snuggle.【B10】______ [br] 【B8】
Some Theories of History
Good morning, everyone. In today’s lecture, we are going to talk about some theories of history.
How much of man’s history do we know? We really know very little. Written records exist for only a fraction of what we suppose to have been man’s time as a unique species. Furthermore, the accuracy of these records is often suspected, and the scope and selection of significant detail in them often needs improvement.
It is worse when we try to reconstruct man’s history before the development of writing, and this is unfortunate because the history of the early development of human society is lost to us. The most that we can do is to use traces, deduction, speculation and the knowledge we have of the habits of those animals which have some elementary social order to help us make a partial reconstruction. This is hardly a satisfactory substitute for precise information.
With our knowledge of human history, which is only fragmentary at best, it is therefore nearly impossible to reconstruct the beginning, and to deduce the end, of the story of man. Thus, there have developed many schools of thought on the subject, each of which attempts to give coherence to the human past by fitting it into the framework of a theory of history.
The first theory I want to introduce is assumed that man continually progress. He has evolved from a lower to a higher form of being, and he continues to evolve. This evolution takes place both in terms of his potentials and his abilities to actualize these potentials.
If one holds this theory, one feels that modern man must be more intelligent and civilized today than his ancestors, as well as physically and morally superior to them. One further assumes that this progress will continue into an ever more glorious future. Here deduction often ends and dreams of Utopia begin, for it seems that most of us find it hard to think of the human race developing into a race of angels. All in all, as a theory of history, the above view has had many eminent supporters.
It might be well to mention here a variation on this theory that used to be popular, namely the idea that man rose from a low condition to a Golden Age at some time in the remote past, and that things have gone straight downhill ever since. Many eminent men have found a sort of gloomy comfort in this idea, but science has now opened up possibilities for the future which makes this theory less defendable. Perhaps for this reason the theory has little modern support.
A second theory of history is held by those men who see man’s history as something quite different from a simple progression from a lower to a higher state. They see it as a cycle of stages of development which are predictable in their broad outlines and main features. As surely as a civilization rises and comes into being, so also must it decline and fall. The chief pattern one sees in history is the rise and fall of civilization.
To holders of this theory, modern man is not looked upon as the most superior social being yet produced. He is simply the typical product of the current stage in the cycle of our civilization. In fact he may actually be inferior to members of past civilizations. It all depends upon what stage of civilization we happen to be living in. Indeed, it has been said that the average modern literate city dweller is comparatively more ignorant of his era’s fund of knowledge than other literate city dwellers of the past While the staggering fund of knowledge in our technologically advanced world is undoubtedly greater than that of any past civilization, it is probably true that the average modern man, relying on such repetitive forms of entertainment as television and working in a narrowly specialized job, knows a great deal less sheer information about his world than did earlier people.
In a third theory of history, the two above theories are to some degree reconciled. According to this theory, which is often termed the spiral view of history, human societies do repeat a cycle of stages, but overall progress observable in the long historical perspective. Civilizations do rise and fall, as the advocates of the second theory maintain, but the new civilization which replaces the first, usually by conquest, contains superior qualities which enable it to rise to a higher stage of development until it, too, declines and is replaced by yet a third civilization.
The above theories interpret history in term as if the overall progress of mankind in general without respect to differentiations within the social order. It is also possible to view human history in terms of the interaction of socioeconomic groups. Human history, according to this theory, is most clearly interpreted as the disappearance of class struggle. Most people who hold this theory assume an eventual resolution of the struggle through the disappearance of class differences, although it would be just as correct to assume that the struggle could continue unresolved. Those who assume that the struggle can eventually be resolved hold that history has a goal and that progress can be measured in terms of how quickly mankind is reaching that goal.
OK. This brings us to the end of today’s lecture. I hope now you can have a better understanding of what history is. Thank you for your attention.
选项
答案
spiral view
解析
根据第三种理论,这种理论经常被称为历史螺旋观(the spiral view of history)。人类社会确实在重复阶段式的循环,但长远来看,总的来说是进步的。此处填入原文原词spiral view。
转载请注明原文地址:https://tihaiku.com/zcyy/3254150.html
相关试题推荐
TheProblemsLearnersofEnglishFaceTheproblemsle
TheProblemsLearnersofEnglishFaceTheproblemsle
TheProblemsLearnersofEnglishFaceTheproblemsle
TheProblemsLearnersofEnglishFaceTheproblemsle
TheNormanConquestof1066isoneofthebest-knowneventsinEnglishhistorya
Thestudyofalanguagethroughthecourseofitshistoryiscalled______A、Pers
______isthefirstimportantgovernessnovelintheEnglishliteraryhistory.A、J
ThefirstimmigrantsinAmericanhistorycamefrom______,somerunningawayfro
HowInterpretersWork?I.UnderstandingA.Aboutwordsande
HowInterpretersWork?I.UnderstandingA.Aboutwordsande
随机试题
森林防火forestfireprevention
[originaltext]Venice,asmall,watersidecityinnortheastItaly,boilswit
关于出版物本量利分析中增值税项目的说法,正确的有( )。A.增值税分为销项增值
既是职业道德教育的主要内容,也是职业道德修养的主要内容的是()。A.人生观
夏季病毒性脑炎的常见病因是A.外感寒湿 B.外感湿热 C.感受温热毒邪 D
有直接肾毒性的药物是A.氯霉素 B.华法林 C.异烟肼 D.巴比妥 E.
下列主要自肾小管分泌排泄的药物是A.链霉素 B.奥美拉唑 C.青霉素 D.
PICC插管最常选择的血管是A.贵要静脉 B.正中静脉 C.头静脉 D.腋
以下说法正确的是()。A.2017年10-12月全国铁路旅客周转量合
强心苷对下列哪种原因所致的慢性心功能不全疗效较好A、甲状腺功能亢进 B、维生素
最新回复
(
0
)