Definition, Evolution, and Historiography of History

History originates from the Greek word historia, which translates to knowledge acquired through inquiry or investigation.
The discipline has existed for approximately $2,400$ years, making it as old as mathematics and philosophy.
Through its adoption into classical Latin, the definition evolved to mean the account of the past of a person or a group of people through written documents and historical evidence.
The term history holds two primary meanings:
- Relating to everything that has occurred in the past.
- Refers to a specific kind of research or inquiry (the primary focus of academic study).
Modern history is defined as a discipline or sub-field of investigation primarily concerned with human activities performed in the past.

History is defined by three specific dimensions that differentiate it from other fields of study:
- Focus on Human Activities: This distinguishes it from theology (focused on the divine) and myths or legends. Myths and legends deal with mythical creatures, deities, and supernatural entities rather than human undertakings.
  - Mesopotamian and Sumerian civilizations engaged in "theocratic history" or "quasi-history."
  - Quasi-history narrates stories of nonhuman entities like mythical heroes and heroines; these are not records of facts but cultural narratives for rituals and ceremonies.
- History as an Inquiry: History is a social science that seeks to answer questions and make sense of the unknown. It requires a systematic and methodical collection of data and evidence, interpreted objectively to reach rational conclusions.
- Concern with the Past: This distinguishes history from political science, economics, and sociology, which are oriented toward the present and prescribing solutions to current issues. Historians explain past events and processes within a specific historical background or context.
History is not merely a chronological list of dates, places, names, and events. Its core concern is answering "why" specific events occurred, such as:
- Why was Jose Rizal executed?
- Why did Japan invade the Philippines during World War II?
- Why was the government overthrown in $1986$ ?

Herodotus: Recognized as the Father of History. He established history as a science and wrote Histories to describe the deeds of men for posterity. His goal was to explain the reasons behind human actions.
Thucydides: Known as the Father of Scientific History. He authored History of the Peloponnesian War. He introduced the importance of systematic, impartial evidence collection. He believed the only reliable sources were testimonies from eyewitnesses, a method known today as oral history.
Shift in Scope: Ancient Greek historians (Herodotus and Thucydides) focused on limited geographic spaces and recent historical periods within living memory. They believed the remote past was unknowable.
Development of Remote History: As Greek civilization expanded, they realized history was too vast for a single generation's memory. This led to studying the remote past through a compilation of various works and records kept across different times and places.
Primacy of Written Records: The meticulous record-keeping of the medieval period led to the modern preference for written documents over artifacts, oral traditions, visual arts, and architecture.
Rise of World History: The expansion of Western civilization and empires like the Roman Empire led to the emergence of World History as a record of diverse civilizations, nations, and societies.

Positivism: A $19^{th}$ century philosophy asserting that true knowledge can only be verified through sensory experience and actual observation of facts.
- In history, this created the mantra: "no document, no history."
- Limitation: Unlike biology or physics, the past cannot be experimented on in a laboratory or contained in a petri dish. No single document can capture the entirety of historical truth.
Historicism: The belief that history should be studied strictly for its own sake, rather than for pragmatic or political purposes.
- Leopold von Ranke: A leading $19^{th}$ century positivist historian and advocate for historicism. He argued that the historian's task is "merely to show how things actually were," without judging the past or guarding specific values.
Contemporary Perspective: As suggested by Benedetto Croce, "All history is contemporary history." This view argues that historical writing is always influenced by the historian's present context and the issues of their time.

Historiography: Defined as the "history of history." It is the study of history as a historical discipline. While history studies the past, historiography studies how history is written.
- Questions include: Who wrote the text? What was the context of publication? What methods and sources were used?
Auxiliary Disciplines: To overcome the limitations of written documents and include marginalized groups (peasants, indigenous peoples, the urban poor), history collaborates with other fields:
- Archaeology: Provides artifacts to study ancient civilizations that lack written records.
- Linguistics: Traces historical evolutions and cultural influences by studying changes in language.
- Biology and Genetics: Analyzes DNA patterns to explain human migration and societal interactions.

Posterity and Control: By recording past human actions, historians provide a guide for future generations to better control their destiny.
Medieval Interpretation: In the medieval period, history was a record of man as an instrument in the fulfillment of a divine plan, shifting focus from human control to discovering God's predetermined path.
Inventory of Alternatives: History serves as a repository of ideas and a range of different options used in the past that can be applied to present problems.
Self-Knowledge: R. G. Collingwood stated that knowing oneself means knowing what one can do; the only clue to what man can do is what man has done. Therefore, history teaches us what man is.

Social Bias in Records: Traditional historical writing focused on those at the top of the social ladder: monarchs, military heroes, clergymen, and nobility. Consequently, topics were limited to revolutions, wars, and crusades.
Abuse and Distortion of History:
- Legitimation: Governments like North Korea, Nazi Germany, and Thailand have used official versions of history to unite nations and legitimize regimes through manufactured social memory.
- Justification of Oppression: American historians once depicted Filipinos as "uncivilized" to justify colonization as a "civilizing mission" and the "white man's burden."
- Revisionism: In the Philippines, the family and loyalists of Ferdinand Marcos have been accused of systematically revising history to depict his regime as a "Golden Age" and escape accountability for past wrongdoings.
The Historian's Duty: Historians face a mission to rescue the past from entities that intend to use it to justify oppression, escape accountability, or spread deceit. Academic rigor and impartiality allow historians to respond to present issues without compromising objectivity.