Historia magistra vitae

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Historia magistra vitae (est) (translated: history (is) the teacher of life ) is a Latin phrase from Cicero , De oratore , II 36. It expresses the principle that lessons must be learned from history in order to avoid mistakes.

The antithesis is that lessons from history are not possible because every historical situation is different and in no way comparable with others. Another view is that people cannot or will not learn a lesson from history because they are intellectually weak.

literature

  • Mikuláš Teich , Albert Müller (Ed.): Historia Magistra Vitae? (= Austrian journal for historical sciences. Volume 16, issue 2). Studien-Verlag, Innsbruck et al. 2005, ISBN 3-7065-4118-1 .
  • Reinhart Koselleck : Historia Magistra Vitae. About the dissolution of the topos in the horizon of modern history. In: Reinhart Koselleck: Past future. On the semantics of historical times (= Suhrkamp-Taschenbuch Wissenschaft 757). Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 1989, ISBN 3-518-28357-X , pp. 38-66.