CH1: THE MEANING OF HISTORY, SOURCES OF HISTORICAL DATA, AND HISTORICAL CRITICISMS L1: The Meaning of History

Historia

greek word of history, meaninv learning through inquiry

Aristotle

viewed history as systematic account of natural phenomena, considering the chronological arrangement of events.

knowledge is obtained by conducting scientific investigations into past events

Aristotle's perspective emphasized that

Factual History

focuses on presenting basic straightforward information to the reader. answering questions who what when where of historical events.

Speculative History

goes beyond near fox and explores the how and why of events. into the causes and effects that led to changes in sixth explained underlying reasons behind historical developments

Historians

those who document history.

their goal is to gain inside into the present by studying what occurred in the past.

History

involves the examination of past events.

significant aspect of historical writing

ability to provide significance and relevance to a particular groups understanding of their own past

historiography

practice of documenting history

-Traditionally involves gathering documents from various libraries and archives to accumulate the necessary evidence for creating a descriptive or analytical narrative.

-Modern, process extends beyond document examination and incorporates research methods from related fields like archaeology and geography.

incompleteness of historical records

a challenge to our knowledge of history.

many human affairs throughout history have left no tangible evidence or records behind

archaeological and anthropological discoveries

can provide valuable insights into the past but they do represent only fragments of the whole historical picture

history-as-actuality

a fraction of the complete historical narrative

history-as-record

through the surviving your course

from historians perspective

history in compasses only the portion of the human past that can be meaningfully peace together using the existing records and influences John about historical context in which they originated

verisimilitude

historians goal; they want to grasp a bus time in a way that is accurate real and believable

historical technique

involves carefully examining and analyzing historical documents and artifacts

historiography or the writing of history

• sometimes referred to as historical method

• -is the creative reconstruction of the past based on the information gathered through this method.

historical analysis

• available component of the historical method

key steps of the vital component of the historical method

1. choosing a subject for investigation

2. God potential sources of information related to the subject

3. strategizing the dentist of the sources either in their entirety or in part

4. extracting reliable and noteworthy details from the sources or their components