Presentism

What this episode covers

Presentism is an attitude toward the past dominated by present-day beliefs.  A recent addition to the English language, presentism emerged in the late 20th century to describe a tendency to view the past through the lens of current conventions. It combines the word ‘present,’ a word of Middle English origin with the suffix I-S-M, which denotes a distinctive practice or philosophy. Here’s an example of presentism in use:- All the presentism in history class made it difficult to truly understand things from the point of view of ancient civilizations. I wish we could have just ditched our current way of viewing things.

PodParley-generated summary based on available episode metadata and transcript content.