站在现有文明的立场回溯过去，时常会以一种“不同情”的视角去观看，即充满蔑视与嘲弄的评价过去。面对中世纪时，这一视角被反复多次运用。文艺复兴时期厌恶中世纪，启蒙运动时期蔑视和嘲弄中世纪。造成这一态度的原因是后世史学新任务的出现和发展概念的缺失。浪漫主义时期将发展的概念扩大成为一般的信念，思想与生活被连在一起，内在的判断标准取代了外在，中世纪成为克罗齐笔下被普遍同情的对象。

Looking back on the past from the standpoint of the existing civilization, it is often viewed with an "unsympathetic" perspective, that is, an evaluation of the past full of contempt and mockery. This perspective was used many times in the face of the Middle Ages. The Renaissance hated the Middle Ages; the Enlightenment despised and ridiculed them. The reason for this attitude is the emergence of the new task of later historiography and the lack of development concept. The Romantic period expanded the concept of development into a general belief, thought and life were linked together, the internal standard of judgment replaced the external, and the Middle Ages became the object of universal sympathy in Croce's works.