Abstract

This study investigates the absoluteness ascribed to the past, its interconnectedness and linkage with history, the archaeology of both, the contextualization and systemization of their phenomenal relevance to the present and the future. The past has always been presented as a unit period full of events that history can recreate and re-enact for social engineering. Acting as a reservoir of historical determinations for history, the past, rich and resourceful when it comes to abundance of events, was subjected to critical enquiry to determine the scope and the extent of its recovery deficit or capacity. The study adopted a philosophical design using an epistemological approach and interrogation. Thus, a dialectical rigor that can explain the empirical reality of the past and that can as well resolve its ambiguities was required for accurate interpretation. Many critical events of the past were also subjected to analytical evaluation not just for elucidation but to pooh pooh the impression that the past is immortal. Extant literature on theoretical constructs that amplify the significance of the past to history will provide the platform for necessary theoretical analysis. The past as a process of social and material condition should be understood and situated within a context that distinguishes it from eternity. Unlike eternity that is projected as a continuous chain of human existence, the past, in whatever context it is used, is a detachable part of human existence that still interacts with the present and the future. It is the déjà vu of existence full of lessons for humanity especially from the actions and activities of victims, villains, heroes and actors that lived in the past. Therefore, viewing the past as one indivisible process, connecting the present with the future and or eternity showed that historians and of course, historiographers are under the theoretical assumption that the past is an unbroken process of human and sociological romanticism. The past is not an endless thread without a starting point or an end. The past is not immune from mortality and therefore it is not infinite. The past has a natural vanishing capacity. The past is mortal and so is history.

Keywords:

Conceptualizing history, dialectical rigor, history, international relations, natural relationships, past,

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Competing interests

The authors have no competing interests.

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The authors have no competing interests.