PORTFOLIO: FINAL EXAM

“Why [consider history]? Simple because I am interested in the past? No, if one means by that […] a history of the past in terms of the present. Yes, if one means […] the history of the present.” This quote is by Michel Foucault, a French philosopher. He was very interested in the history of ideas and the system of thought. In this quote, Foucault presents a theory about history in terms of the present.

I think Foucault’s theory is to reflect back on the past and having that be history and how that will affect the present and the future. We need to study history not only just by reading about it, but we also need to think about how that reflects in the present. Connections can often be found between events in history and events now. If while studying it is considered how that reflects onto current issues it often makes it easier to understand the past.

This can applied in my history class. When studying the topics of this class, it made it easier to understand the motives, arguments, and interests of the people and groups of the past when they were related to motives, arguments, and interests of the present. This works because we understand the current issues because they are real to us and are about issues that concern us. We are not in the mindset of the past. Things that were important to them may no longer be important to us. Therefore, we do not understand their point of view.

Another part to this theory is not only relating the past to the present, but also the affects of the past on the present. How the past event affected the present and how the present event will affect the future. In my writing class I did pretty badly on the first essay but I went back and looked at it and did better on the second essay. My mistakes in the past affected how I wrote my second essay because I tried not to make the same mistakes and I did end up doing better. I have been trying to do that with all of my assignments. Looking back at my mistakes and then trying not to make those mistakes again so that I will gradually progress and have no mistakes in the future.

I do not think that my learning would have been that different with a different answer to Foucault’s question. It could have possibly been different for history because it would have made the class harder for me and it would have made some of the topics we went over harder to understand. I do not think that it would have changed my learning in writing though. When you make a mistake, you naturally learn from that mistake, at least I do. I think it is just natural to get better at things once you do them several times and make mistakes and have problems. Although, making an effort to not make the same mistakes again does help your progress.

Michel Foucault’s theory is about the past, the present and history. How we should relate the past to the present and then look at the affects of the past and project that into the future. This theory applies to my class experiences and will apply in the future also. Time is never-ending so there will always be a past, present, and future and there will always be
history.