CompuServe Thread

John, Interesting…don't you think that 'reason' is refuted by the 'reality' that Freud found in human kind…namely the fact that in any individual, irrationality can over come reason, and that an otherwise rational person can be irrational on a particular subject or in a particular circumstance? As to shaking up the rock solid certainties of high school students, I agree with the comment that college can have no nobler purpose. Those who already know it all have no incentive to learn…..and, I've run across few recent high school graduates who have nothing more to learn. The quotation about historians reevaluating and reinterpreting historical experience in each generation is, I hope, completely correct. I hope that as understanding evolves and knowledge is broadened about the past, historians can build upon the intrepretations of their predecessors and further our understanding of our past and ourselves. The fundemental concept of 'progress' seems to be what you are challenging when you say such a statement is a "refusal to recognize thatthere is a DEFINITIVE reality in which specific things happened." I don't read that from the quote in the first place….knowing what happened and understanding it can be two very different things. Regards, Dave