Abstract
Looks at how the "horizon of knowability" developed in the late 18th century, when people developed a new interest in the past, exploring how various philosophers including Immanuel Kant and Benedetto Croce have viewed humanity's relationship with the past. In the late 18th century, archives, museums, and historical narratives fed this interest in history. In the last decades of the 20th century, scholars have shown a new interest in the study of memory. It is necessary to recognize the power of this interest in understanding, collecting, and memorializing the past to free individuals to deal with the future.