RA.85 To understand the past

85. To understand the past you have to be able, as far as possible, to think as the people in the period you are studying thought. The example of what it must have been like to be a peasant in the Middle Ages is used. However, sensibilities change over time and we can't completely throw off the mentality of the present. Therefore, every age will have a slightly different perspective on the same period of the past, no matter what the facts are.