Knowing about the past cannot help people to make important decisions today.Write a response in which you discuss the extent to which you agree or disagree with the statement and explain your reasoning for the position you take. In developing and supporti

The issue of whether the knowledge of the past can or cannot contribute in the present decision making is highly debatable. Although the theoretical definition of time is still prone to a subjective interpretation, the pragmatic point of view about time is related to how everyone transforms the experiences into useful knowledge that can be utilized for better present and future decision making. After carefully evaluating some historical facts, it becomes clear that knowing about the past can indeed assist people, as a useful feedback, to make important decisions today.

To begin with, a prominent example that can demonstrate the importance of knowing about the past is the painstaking work of Thomas Edison. Known to have performed over a thousand experiments in order to finally invent the light bulb, Edison was always eager to learn from the past. When he was asked to comment on his prodigious trials and errors he simply stated that "all the failed experiments were not actually a failure but just numerous ways that a light bulb would not work". He further explained that every time he was setting a new experiment, the most important thing for him was to consider the accumulated past data and make use of it so that he wont repeat the same mistakes in his decision making process. In sort, Edison's success was based on the simple fact that knowing about the past, in his case the produced data from his failed experiments, had a significant effect in his decisions for his upheld experiments.

Next, another example that emphasizes the significance of the knowledge of the past can be found in the management of modern businesses. Since the modern world greatly relies on the analysis of historical data, whether it be financial, technological or policy related, business plans are dependent on how past knowledge is utilized in order to not only avoid hazardous decisions, but also generate useful information that can give a strategic advantage over the competition. For instance, many former CEOs' from successful corporations like IBM, although they admit that they have been through difficult times of economic turbulence, have repeatedly stated in their public interviews that what makes a good CEO and thus a successful company, apart from being able to balance present market situation, is their ability to correctly interpreting past data. Top hundred corporations in the world share a common element and that is that they have the lowest recurrence of mistakes in the competitive environment in which they operate.

Last of all, on the other side of the opinion camp, many would suggest that history has many examples were knowing about the past did not really help in making decisions at all. At times when the inescapable happened, like wars, genocides and generally catastrophes, people did not really count on past experience but only on what they had at hand. Though this is true, the main objection in these cases is that the time available for consideration of the past was pretty low at that point. The burden of these events falls on dogmatic people who are or were responsible and did not pay any heed to history, eagerly repeating the same mistakes over and over again. Knowing about the past is a necessary but not sufficient condition. As previously explained, to be sufficient and not futile, the past has to be perused and conclusions have to be drawn.

To sum up, according to the aforementioned examples we can conclude that knowing about the past can have a severe impact in making important decisions. Authority, science and even the market have repeatedly proven that considering past data is the most important thing that can make the difference between a good and a bad call. After all, nature has supplied humans with the greatest gifts known, cognition and intellect, for a reason and all we have to do is learn how to utilize these mechanisms that will help us survive as a whole through time.