Preview

A Historian Must Combine the Rigor of a Scientist with the Imaginatio

Powerful Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1614 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
A Historian Must Combine the Rigor of a Scientist with the Imaginatio
"A historian must combine the rigor of a scientist with the imagination of the artist." To what extend, then, can the historian be confident about his or her conclusions? History has always been a subject that is looked upon by many as a very controversial and biased one. In History people can have disagreements. One historian can believe that an event in the past happened in a certain way while another can think it happened differently. This is because history is a matter of interpretation as well as evidence, of judgement as well as knowledge. As a result of this historians must combine the rigor of a scientist with the imagination of an artist, to have the ability to produce a reasonable conclusion. Another historian however can challenge this conclusion. It is impossible to create a conclusion that every historian will agree with.
The problem with history, especially as a science, is that cause and effect can not always be clearly explained and understood. A science always evaluates the evidence in a certain way that everyone can agree with. Science does not leave any other possibilities open. There is always one answer in the end of why something happened. Cause and effect can be explained in a way that everyone has to agree with based on the evidence. In History cause and effect can not always be clearly explained and understood. It is open to different possibilities. In history there are three different ways of knowing according to Mr. Hexter, a professor at Washington University. The first way of knowing is the "Cartesian transformation". This way of knowing stresses systematic mathematical formulation and reasoning resting on the exact measurement of things. Many scientists would certainly approve this method. Historians on the other hand argue it is a mistake to use this way of knowing in history, the study of mankind. Historians unlike Scientists must rely on intuition and creativity of to recreate the events of the past. This is where the

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Among the reading assignments, the chapter “Who Owns the Past?” in Dangerous Game by MacMillan piqued my interest to elaborate on. In this chapter, she emphasizes that history is written by many historians who have their own views, interpretations, and biases. In this regard, she implies that we should not simply believe in what historians claim, but dig into its sources and figure out from many perspectives. There are many ‘bad’ history produced by historians without offering a wide range of views and this can be used as an instrument that can largely influence on people by giving them prejudice on certain events. There are always reasons behind each event and it is important to find out what indeed happened as well as where the history is…

    • 307 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    This is largely because historians come from a variety of different backgrounds, including but not being limited to different countries, cultures, and government systems. One example of this can be seen through the book The Rape of Nanking by Iris Chang. This text argued that a Japanese onslaught of the Chinese city of Nanking was genocide, which made other historians speculative. They claimed that the intent of the Japanese Army was not to eliminate the Chinese race but to maintain control over the public during their presence, and therefore the event should not be classified as genocide. At this point, many experts seem to hold this point of view. So, why did Chang dissent with…

    • 1464 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Although events in history occurred over a long span of time and development, history first became an academic subject a little more than 100 years ago (McNeill 12). Since then, a plethora of controversies appeared regarding how historians, scholars, and intellectuals should examine and analyze history. Among the initial methods of studying history was the scientific research method, or scientific source criticism, which fundamentally extracts valid, legitimate facts from a diverse range of historical sources. Throughout time, however, the facts derived from this method of historical study gradually altered, leading to a new method of historical study: using facts and combining them with opinions and goals to constitute personal interpretations. As Oscar Handlin zealously asserts, historians and scholars should provide a strict examination of history based on a chronological study of known and verifiable facts as opposed to using verifiable facts as the basis for their own interpretation, influenced by their own group, experiences, beliefs, and personal motives. Through implementing a strict examination of history, historians can successfully detect and eradicate bias in their writings, allow the government as well as individuals to gain an insight into the past in order to secure and progress the future, and grasp the magnitude of truth.…

    • 645 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    He then compares the very different beliefs of the shape of the earth in the Middle Ages with the ancient Greek ideas. Although the ancient Greeks were more accurate in their thinking, he later brings up the unfortunate fact that the Greek’s ideas were ignored and left out of the bible. This put scientific advancement more than a thousand years behind what it could have been. He continues…

    • 590 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    US history 1491-1800

    • 14545 Words
    • 67 Pages

    The discipline of history has located them in time and space and had thereby helped them know themselves not as physicians or attorneys but as persons…

    • 14545 Words
    • 67 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Over time history can be changed into a different story. As stated in 1984, "All history was a palimpsest, scraped clean and reinscribed exactly as often as was necessary. In no case would it have been possible, once the deed was done, to prove that any falsification had taken place" (51). This is why the thought,…

    • 1598 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    History is the procedure used to analyze what was significant about chosen events, individuals, and advancements from the past. Historians utilize distinctive arrangements of criteria to help them make judgements about essentialness. All theories have to base on data. To make the country become better, people needs the data from the past to guide their country to the bright future. The old said: “the one who controls the past controls the future.”…

    • 937 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Although the past is not capable of being genuinely altered, history can be manipulated in order to control the present and distort the truth.…

    • 956 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The obsolescence of old information caused society to approach the past with a new look in order to have an accurate, Analytical Interpretation of what had occurred, which with, history had become a science. The method the Analytical Historians used to reach the level of a…

    • 475 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Four Eras of Writing

    • 825 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Late- nineteenth-century historians, usually called “historicists” or “positivists” believed that history was like science and with practice it could be solved. According to Couvares, Croce believed that Positivists were faulty in their assumptions because history was perceived differently every time it was written down since no one thinks exactly alike. With so many different views, historians are usually adding more and more information to each other’s perceptions.…

    • 825 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Legal Memo

    • 392 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Many things can be inaccurate with history information. People who recorded the information may have recorded it wrong. This may be due to the person they were interviewing. People who recorded it recorded may not have written down all the facts. Some people who recorded information wrong, may be protecting the person who the information is about. Such as Freud’s biographer down playing his cocaine use. Data has also been lost and found again later. Information may have been translated wrong and then later found out the true meaning. The data may be interpreted differently. A person may have a different memory than what actually happened. An example of this would be Skinner portraying his early days of work, work, and work. His colleagues portray him as a normal guy. Also, history can change and the spirit of the time or zeitgeist may be different.…

    • 392 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Schindlers List

    • 496 Words
    • 2 Pages

    History can not be changed however it can be erased. There is a quote that states ¨history is written by the victors¨ and that basically is evident.…

    • 496 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    He tested all of his predictions against the artifacts and their data. He found out that twenty five percent of the predictions where false. This information helped him further his understanding and continue on to research the activity of the artifacts in the Great Basin area. David Hurst Thomas’ research was greatly helped with the use of the scientific method. I believe that archaeology can classify as a science because there is a lot of research involved. In all sciences before you can publish something you have to have the evidence and the found data to back yourself up, thus the research. It can also be a science because most of the time the people doing the experience are in the field collecting data or in a lab sampling the data that was already collected, testing on the finds. Archaeology and all sciences that we know all use the past to help them further their knowledge and help them further their own experiments in the present. I would classify archaeology as a mix between history and science. You would need to know both the history, through research, and science, through the data, to gain total knowledge on the artifact that a person…

    • 334 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Started from the Bottom

    • 1333 Words
    • 6 Pages

    What is History? Is it purely stories handed down from generation to generation or is it simply the things we read about in history books? Is the history described in books today precise or has the whole truth been Throughout the course of history, there have been many events and stories that have been told and handed down from generation to generation gradually giving the current age an understanding of the history that people have lived through. History comes from people with first hand accounts of the events that took place in the past and the stories that they tell others about their experiences. As seen in Gordon Parks’ “Speaking for the Past” and Thomas R. Partsch’s “March 16-18, 1968”, history is most often than not, told from the bottom up with a bias that provokes the reader to feel certain emotions about the story or history being told.…

    • 1333 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Jackson

    • 735 Words
    • 3 Pages

    History is the study of past events, specifically human affairs. We use the study of history to investigate and seek to explain how people have changed over time. Historians use all forms of evidence to examine, interpret, revisit, and reinterpret the past. These include not just written documents, but also oral communication. Also, objects and art such as sculptures, buildings, artifacts, photographs, and paintings are used to interpret the past. Historians do not always agree on interpretations of the past. Many say that the survivors have written our history. But nevertheless, debated differences help expand and enhance our understanding of human development.…

    • 735 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays