THINKER'S ALMANAC - July 10

Subject:  Confused Language - History and Heritage

Event:  History professor Steven Conn writes about the Confederate flag controversy, 2015

Perhaps the writer has used an important word incorrectly by not taking the trouble to look it up. He may think that "sanguine" and "sanguinary" mean the same thing, but the difference is a bloody big one.  -William Zinnser

On this day in 2015, an editorial appeared in The Philadelphia Inquirer weighing in on the controversial issue of whether or not the Confederate flag should be a part of the flag of the state of Mississippi.  In explaining his case, historian Steven Conn of Miami University in Ohio began by emphasizing the distinction between two words:  history and heritage.  Conn argued that these two conflicting views of the past should not be used synonymously; instead, they should be treated as opposites:

History follows rules of evidence an interpretation.  Most important, it is debated and revised constantly as new evidence and new ways of  evidence come to light . . . . Heritage, by contrast, is a mythologized version of the past, stripped of all the unpleasant parts.

                                                             Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

Conn continued by explaining the key distinctions between the two words, explaining how they are anything but synonymous:

History, [unlike heritage], doesn’t care about your feelings.  It isn’t therapeutic and its job isn’t to make you feel good about yourself, your relatives or the ethnic tribe with which you identify.  History forces you to think, to question the assumptions you hold about the past in order to analyze the present more deeply. -Steven Conn

As it relates to the Confederate flag controversy, Conn argued that “Those who cling to the Confederate flag want their personal, rose-tinted mythologies of Confederate heritage to be taken seriously as history.”  The error here is that this attitude conflates heritage with history.  Unlike heritage, which is the subjective “past-as-we-wish-it-were,” point of view,  history takes a broader, more objective view of the past, looking at “the good, the bad, and the ugly.”

  

To illustrate his point beyond just the issue of the Mississippi flag, Conn presents the example of attitudes about Christopher Columbus.  Italian Americans have a long tradition of celebrating Columbus’ achievements as an explorer; however, to go beyond just heritage, they should also recognize the historical facts relating to Columbus’ enslavement of native people, which began the unfortunate history of slavery in the New World.

Conn’s argument is an important reminder of how important it is to establish clear definitions when addressing an argument.  This is so important, in fact, that whenever looking at a controversial issue, debaters should begin by identifying and defining specific terms that are essential to understanding the issue.

Clarifying precise definitions and making fine distinctions between words is important in order to avoid misinterpretations or misunderstandings that can derail a debate.  Imagine, for example, that you’re debating the issue of capital punishment while your interlocutor thinks you're discussing corporeal punishment.  Obviously, both issues involve punishment, but the adjectives “capital” and “corporeal” involve two totally different kinds of punishment.

Furthermore, clarifying definitions will help you establish common ground based on agreed-upon definitions and also open the door to identifying assumptions that should be brought out into the open.  For example, in Steven Conn’s argument about the past, he clearly defines the terms history and heritage, revealing the distinctions between the two terms and showing that they are not synonymous.

Recall, Retrieve, Recite, Ruminate, Reflect, Reason:  What are the key distinctions between the definitions of the words “history” and “heritage”?

Challenge:  Words with a World of Difference

Research the precise definitions of a word pair that some people might think are synonymous.  What is the definition of each word, and what is the difference?

The following are some possible examples of word pairs:

Norm/Average

Joy/Exhuberane

Judgement/Prejudice

Happiness/Pleasure

Prosperity/Wealth

Reason/Logic

Right/Want

Slander/Libel

Jargon/Slang

Freedom/License

Frankness/Rudeness

Sanguine/ Sanguinary

Also on this Day:

July 10, 1871:  Today is the birthday of Marcel Proust, the French writer, who gave us the following insight about reading:  “Reading is that fruitful miracle of a communication in the midst of solitude.”

Sources:

1-Conn, Steven.  “Heritage and History Aren’t the Same Thing.” The Philadelphia Inquirer 10 July 2015.