Chapter 1: The
Meaning of History,
Sources of Historical
Data, and Historical
Criticisms
What makes history as a
discipline and as a
narrative?
Lesson 1: Meaning of History
The term “history” derives from the Greek word
“historia” which means learning through inquiry.
For Aristotle, he viewed history as the systematic
account of natural phenomena, considering the
chronological arrangement of events.
In general, history refers to the narrative account
of phenomena, particularly human affairs arranged
in chronological order.
Difference between Factual and Speculative
History
Factual history focuses on presenting basic and
straightforward information to the reader, answering questions
such as “who,” “what,” “when,” and “where”. It aims to present
an accurate and objective account of what happened.
Speculative history goes beyond mere facts and explores
the “how” and “why” of events. It delves into the causes and
effects that led to changes and seeks to explain the underlying
reasons behind historical developments. It imagines what
might have happened if certain events had occurred differently.
History involves the examination of past events, and those who
document history are known as historians.
Historians engage in extensive research to construct a
meaningful and well-organized representation of historical
events.
A significant aspect of historical writing is the ability to provide
significance and relevance to a particular group’s understanding of
their own past.
Documenting history is called as historiography, which traditionally involves
gathering documents from various libraries and archives to accumulate the
necessary evidence for creating a descriptive or analytical narrative.
Limitation of
Historical Knowledge
Incompleteness of historical records poses a
significant challenge to our knowledge of history.
Absence of artifacts or other evidences further
complicates the understanding of human settings
Historians primarily rely on surviving records.
However, these records provide glimpses into
historical events and only a fraction of the total
historical reality.
Even archaeological and anthropological discoveries
can provide valuable insights, but they cannot fully
capture the complexity and diversity of history.
Historians work with the evidence available to them. However,
their claims and interpretations remain subject to change as
new historical records are discovered.
Incompleteness of the historical records highlights the inherent
limitations of the historian’s object of study.
Historian can only grasp a fraction of the complete historical
narrative, referred to as the history-as-actuality, through the
surviving records, known as history-as-record.
Historian acknowledge the comparability of human experience
across time seeking to identify commonalities and patterns that
can help shed light on the human condition throughout history.
History as Historian rely on the available records and employ various methods of
the inference. Make inference on broader historical knowledge and context,
filling in gaps where direct evidence is lacking.
Subjective
Process of Historians endeavor to reconstruct the entirety of
Re- humanity’s past despite that limited evidence at their
creation disposal.
Historian’s goal is verisimilitude, they want to grasp a
pasty time in a way that is accurate, real, and believable.
Historical Method and
Historiography
Historical technique involves carefully examining and
analyzing historical documents and artifacts.
Historiography, or the writing of history, is the creative
reconstruction of the past based on the information
gathered.
Historical analysis is a vital component of the historical
method, encompassing several key steps.
1. Choosing a subject for investigation
2. Gathering a potential sources of information related
to the subject
3. Scrutinizing the authenticity of the sources
4. Extracting reliable and noteworthy details from the
sources of their components.
