• ...It would hardly be a waste of
time if sometimes even the most advanced
students in the cognitive sciences were to pay a visit to their ancestors. It is frequently claimed in American
philosophy departments that,
in order to be a philosopher, it is not necessary to revisit the history of philosophy. It is like the claim that one can
become a painter without
having ever seen a single work by Raphael, or a writer without having ever read the classics. Such things are
theoretically possible; but
the 'primitive' artist, condemned to an ignorance of the past, is always recognizable as such and rightly labeled as naïf. It is
only when we consider past
projects revealed as utopian or as failures that we are apprised of the dangers and possibilities for failure
for our allegedly new
projects. The study of the deeds of our ancestors is thus more than an atiquarian pastime, it is an immunological
precaution.
• -Umberto Eco, The
Search for the Perfect Language, page
316