K.International School TokyoTOK Essay“The task of the historian is to understand the past; the human scientist, on the other hand, seeks to change the future. How true is this in these areas of knowledge? The word counts: “The task of the historian is to understand the past; the human scientist, on the other hand, seeks to change the future. How true is this in these areas of knowledge? Knowing the future is as important as understanding the past. Understanding the past is important for deriving patterns to prevent negative events in history from repeating themselves in the future. It is difficult to change the future without understanding knowledge from the past. Humans define history as an exploration of past events while the humanities are the study of behavior, for which there is no absolutely correct answer. Scientists and historians use ways of knowing (WOK), including perception, emotion, and reason, to facilitate the study of the past and change the future. If historians' primary attention is focused solely on the past, then there will be weaknesses in the collection of knowledge; and vice versa, if scientists are looking for solutions to change the future, they should also examine the past to better understand the future. Historians primarily study the past, but with a focus on the future, while human scientists use the past as well as the present in order to make predictions and change the future; however, both AOKs share the difficulty of viewing humans as an uncontrolled variable. The question is how cyclical is history and can it ever be avoided? Historians study the past not only to gain knowledge of the past, but also to use it as a means of foresight for academia. Accessed January 2014 from http://www.edpsycinteractive.org/topics/cognition/piaget.html Landau, E. (October 19, 2013). Rare skull sparks controversy over human evolution. CNN. Retrieved February 25, 2014 from http://edition.cnn.com/2013/10/17/world/europe/ancient-skull-human-evolution/Nelson, C. (1999). About the Great Depression. About the Great Depression. Retrieved January 18, 2014 from http://www.english.illinois.edu/maps/depression/about.htmRiedel, S. (January 18, 2005). NCBI. Edward Jenner and the history of smallpox and vaccination. Accessed February 3, 2014, from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1200696/Smithsonian Institution. (2014). Introduction to human evolution. Human Evolution by the Smithsonian Institution's Human Origins Program. Retrieved February 25, 2014 from http://humanorigins.si.edu/resources/intro-human-evolution