Barbarians of the ancient times and the steam engines of modern ages...

Barbarians of the ancient times and the steam engines of modern ages, he states, “were unintelligent factors of their own era that made civilizations deviate from the order they had inherited from their predecessors.” On the other hand, he writes that Christianity and democracy “arose out of ideals compiled self-consciously, quite in conflict with the religions and beliefs their ancestors made and their societies protected.” The history of thoughts is dual in nature - man's physical and mental effects - but whereas Whitehead does not provide the criterion for the dual aspects, Allamah Ja’fari believes that the criterion is actually man's dual nature itself.

Man has a material, natural aspect which makes him try to continue his life; on the other hand, he also has a spiritual aspect, which aims for greatness, for perfection. Some historical phenomena arise from man's purely natural life, while some others originate from his perfectionist aspect. Prophets of God and true men of wisdom and philosophy have endeavored to adjust and improve the former aspect - man's natural life.

Whitehead emphasizes that historians always present their own point of view of history. He believes that Gibbon's history of the world is in fact Gibbon's side of the story. Indeed, historians are influenced by their own mental states and tendencies when analyzing history. In other words, historians study history as they wish. If they believe that some phenomena are caused by certain reasons, they think other people have the same idea, too.

For example, if a historian believes that selfishness is the most important factor influencing man's actions, his historical analyses will also tend to show everything as a result of selfishness. “The history of our ideas,” Whitehead writes, “arises out of our beliefs about history; it is a result of our own mental viewpoints.” This is not generally correct, for then all history books would be worthless, merely describing their authors' character or viewpoints.

It is the duty of historians and historical analysts to record history as it happened, and present their analyses separate from the facts; report and interpretation should not be mixed. Some historians have, in fact, done just that. One of the points that Whitehead emphasizes is, “Oversimplifying is a great hazard in the history of ideas.” We also agree that not all philosophical or scientific issues of high importance can be oversimplified so that everyone may understand them.