September Entry 2 - Is our interpretation of people and events from the past influenced by modern day values and ideas?

 

TOK Question 

Is our interpretation of people and events from the past influenced by modern day values and ideas?

The fact that our generation has any knowledge on past events and people is something that would have definitely been gained from people in the present which is modern day. Knowledge gained about events and people in the past are very much influenced by modern day values and ideas. Knowledge can be influenced by many things. Even the faintest ideas of an influential person can play a big role in the perspective of the population.

Different versions and theories of particular events tend to spread through word of mouth. All of these versions are not wrong. It’s just their perspective of the truth, their own version of it. As we keep gaining knowledge on the same topic we can falsify our past knowledge and change it according to our modern source. The knowledge that we gain may not always be correct and knowledge dating back generally would be more accurate. However it really depends on the source of the modern knowledge.

Generally we get knowledge from newspaper articles and books. These things are still coming out today, and we get our knowledge from these sources. We can trust newspapers, especially national ones, as they give us some of the most accurate information. All of this information gained helps us expand and broaden our minds.  How we are today is because of people in the past, the characters they built to adapt to their surroundings. 

So judging our behavior is a very good way to also understand what might have happened in the past. It can really tell us allot about how we are before. Knowledge in the present keeps developing. This helps us to understand newer concepts which gives us insight to older topics! So, yes I think that knowledge from past events can be gained through both olden and modern day values.