retrospection
/rɛtrə(ʊ)ˈspɛkʃ(ə)n
/noun [mass noun]
The action of looking back on or reviewing past events or situations, especially those in one’s own life: he was disinclined to indulge in retrospection...
- But he said Parliament had approved any measure of retrospection which would enable a judgment to be upset because of the change in the limitation period.
- The past is therefore not bathed in the light of retrospection, but is presented in the ordinary, nondramatic tones of immediacy.
- If accounting were ‘only accounting,’ then an organization could not make predictive and prescriptive changes to its functions based on this institutional retrospection, which it surely needs to do.
Origin
Mid 17th century: probably from retrospect (used as a verb).