 History, seen as the sum of all human experience, is therefore of great importance for all branches of learning. In De tradendis disciplinis, Vives maintains that “history appears to surpass all disciplines, since it either gives birth to or nourishes, develops [and] cultivates all arts” (VI, 291). In this sense, history is not primarily regarded as the memory of great deeds or the source of useful examples, but as a process of development. In principle, every new generation is better equipped than the preceding one, since it can derive advantage from all earlier experience: “It is therefore clear – he maintains – that if only we apply our minds sufficiently, we can formulate better opinions about matters of life and nature than could Aristotle, Plato, or any of the ancients” (VI, 6–7). According to Vives, the saying “we are like dwarfs on the shoulders of giants” is plainly false. We are not dwarfs, nor were they giants. All humans are composed of the same structure (VI, 39). The idea of progress plays an essential role in Vives’ conception of intellectual history, and several of the cultural problems he deals with, such as the causes of the corruption of the arts, are approached from an historical perspective.