And this points to the second further aspect of practices, which is that practices have histories.14 In other words, when we begin to engage with any particular practice, we are always joining an existing ‘coherent and complex form of socially established cooperative human activity’, and as a result we should regard ourselves as beginners (apprentices) in that activity and learn from those who are already engaged in it, and from those ‘giants’ of its past who have defined its present standards of excellence.
