For Baron Pierre de Coubertin, history could only be understood when viewed through the prism of truth.  He was a philosopher of history and the interpretation of the past had to be measured by the truths which time had rendered indelible.  He argued for a prismatic view of human progress and events, believing that historic milestones had to be separated from the concept of ‘causes’ to be clearly understood.  The prismatic view is the perspective that breaks things down into their essential parts or colors and allows a closer examination of each.  Today’s quote, which once again reverberates with relevance to our times, is drawn from a speech the Baron delivered to the Academy of Athens in 1927.  His subject was “On the Transformation and Spread of Historical Studies: Their Character and Consequences.”

“With regard to the uses of world history, a desire for proportion is indispensable, but that desire will be effective only if it is aided simultaneously by the activity of the mind. I will point out two activities of the mind that, I believe, we must make habitual. First we must take a prismatic view of men and of things; second, we must replace the concept of 'cause' with the concept of 'function.' Truth does not exist in some sort of well from which it must be drawn, according to the fable. Truth resides at the center of the prism.”