Essay --

Many students believe that a historian’s job is only to understand the past; likewise they believe that a human scientist’s job is solely to change the future. However, as a â€Å"knower†, I now comprehend that there is much more to these jobs than meets the eyes. I believe that these job â€Å"definitions† only describe the mere superficial part of the job, that there is a lot more to being a historian or a human scientist then just one simple task. However with these job â€Å"definitions†, that society has given, are many complex questions on how we accumulate knowledge on certain issues, these questions are known as knowledge issues. Some of the knowledge issues included in the job â€Å"definitions† are: Could history be seen as a cycle? To what extent can a historian â€Å"understand† the past? Do human scientists invent new ideas and theories or do they reinforce past paradigms? In what ways do the human sciences contribute to the future? In order to answer these questions I have decided to examine historians and human scientists in terms of how they engage the past and the future. There are many people who claim they have the â€Å"true† history; these types of people are known as historians. In this case my definition of historian is: an expert in the study of history, especially in that of a particular period, region, or social phenomenon. There are many different kinds of historians ranging from economics to environmental, and even to, urban. However in history, which we want to focus on, we have orthodox, revisionist, post-revisionist and many more. One may ask himself why there are so many different historians if there was but only ONE true accurate history. This is because history is full of â€Å"gaps† which the historians TRY to fill with their ow... ...ut does not give an explanation. On the other hand I define law as a concept that shows the direction of movement of a variable and gives a reliable explanation for the movement. Additionally human scientist may confuse a correlation with a casual connection. The transcendentalist poet Wystan Hugh Auden once said, â€Å"There is more than meets the eye.† These idea of concepts being more complex then they seem surround the jobs of historians and human scientists. The historian doesn’t simply understand the past for knowledge but also for the benefit that comes from it, such as to better understand the present and supply guidance for the future: â€Å"In history lie all the secrets of statecraft†. Likewise, human scientist attempt to explain and understand trends of human behavior; however, this is only achieved by examining the past the gain a comprehension on the subject.