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The Truth of History
  • Language: en
  • Pages: 344

The Truth of History

  • Type: Book
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  • Published: 2002-11-01
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  • Publisher: Routledge

Modern relativism and postmodern thought in culture and language challenge the 'truth' of history. This book considers how all historians, confined by the concepts and forms of argument of their own cultures, can still discover truths about the past. The Truth of History presents a study of various historical explanations and interpretations and evaluates their success as accounts of the past. C. Behan McCullagh contests that the variety of historical interpretations and subjectivity does not exclude the possibility of their truth. Through an examination of the constraints of history, the author argues that although historical descriptions do not mirror the past they can correlate with it in a regular and definable way. Far from debating in the abstract and philosophical only, the author beds his argument in numerous illuminating concrete historical examples. The Truth of History explores a new position between the two extremes of believing that history perfectly represents the past and that history can tell us nothing true of the past.

The Logic of History
  • Language: en
  • Pages: 223

The Logic of History

  • Type: Book
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  • Published: 2004-03
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  • Publisher: Routledge

The Logic of History defends the practice of history as more reliable than has recently been acknowledged, arguing that historians make their accounts as fair as they can and avoid misleading their readers.

Justifying Historical Descriptions
  • Language: en
  • Pages: 268

Justifying Historical Descriptions

  • Type: Book
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  • Published: 1984-10-25
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  • Publisher: CUP Archive

In common with history, all the social sciences crucially rely on descriptions of the past for their evidence. But when, if ever, is it reasonable to regard such descriptions as true? This book attempts to establish the conditions that warrant belief in historical descriptions. It does so in a non-technical way, analysing numerous illustrations of the different kinds of argument about the past employed by historians and others. The author concludes that no historical description can be finally proved, and that we are only ever justified in believing them for certain practical purposes. This central question has not been addressed in such a thorough and systematic manner before. It draws on recent philosophy of history and will interest philosophers. But the wealth of material and accessibility of the presentation will also make it very valuable for historians and other social scientists concerned with the logic of their disciplines.

A Companion to the Philosophy of History and Historiography
  • Language: en
  • Pages: 581

A Companion to the Philosophy of History and Historiography

A COMPANION TO THE PHILOSOPHY OF HISTORY AND HISTORIOGRAPHY The philosophy of historiography examines our representations and knowledge of the past, the relation between evidence, inference, explanation and narrative. Do we possess knowledge of the past? Do we just have probable beliefs about the past, or is historiography a piece of convincing fiction? The philosophy of history is the direct philosophical examination of history, whether it is necessary or contingent, whether it has a direction or whether it is coincidental, and if it has a direction, what it is, and how and why it is unfolding? The fifty entries in this Companion cover the main issues in the philosophies of historiography and history, including natural history and the practices of historians. Written by an international and multi-disciplinary group of experts, these clearly written entries present a cutting-edge updated picture of current research in the philosophies of historiography and history. This Companion will be of interest to philosophers, historians, natural historians, and social scientists.

Authoring the Past
  • Language: en
  • Pages: 221

Authoring the Past

  • Type: Book
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  • Published: 2012
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  • Publisher: Routledge

Please explain why you think about and write history as you do? Collecting together the responses to this question from 15 of the world's foremost historians and theorists, Authoring the Past represents a powerful reflection on and intervention in the historiographical field. Edited by Alun Munslow and presented in concise digestible essays, the collection covers a broad range of contemporary interests and ideas and offers a rich set of reasoned alternative thoughts on our cultural engagement with times gone by. Emerging from an intensely fertile period of historical thought and practice, Authoring the Past examines the variety of approaches to the discipline that have taken shape during this time and suggests possible future ways of thinking about and interacting with the past. It provides a unique insight into recent debates on the nature and purpose of history and demonstrates that when diverse metaphysical and aesthetic choices are made, the nature of the representation of the past becomes a matter of legitimate dispute. Students, scholars and practitioners of history will find it a stimulating and invaluable resource.

The Nature of History Reader
  • Language: en
  • Pages: 367

The Nature of History Reader

The question of what the nature of history is, is a key issue for all students of history. It is recognized by many that the past and history are different phenomena and that the way the past is actively historicized can be highly problematic and contested.

Our Knowledge of the Past
  • Language: en
  • Pages: 303

Our Knowledge of the Past

How do historians, comparative linguists, biblical and textual critics and evolutionary biologists establish beliefs about the past? How do they know the past? This book presents a philosophical analysis of the disciplines that offer scientific knowledge of the past. Using the analytic tools of contemporary epistemology and philosophy of science the book covers such topics as evidence, theory, methodology, explanation, determination and underdetermination, coincidence, contingency and counterfactuals in historiography. Aviezer Tucker's central claim is that historiography as a scientific discipline should be thought of as an effort to explain the evidence of past events. He also emphasizes the similarity between historiographic methodology to Darwinian evolutionary biology. This is an important, fresh approach to historiography and will be read by philosophers, historians and social scientists interested in the methodological foundations of their disciplines.

Assessing the New Testament Evidence for the Historicity of the Resurrection of Jesus
  • Language: en
  • Pages: 427

Assessing the New Testament Evidence for the Historicity of the Resurrection of Jesus

This volume is the sequel to its companion volume The Historical Argument for the Resurrection of Jesus during the Deist Controversy. It comprises a thorough examination of the New Testament materials undergirding the historicity of Jesus’ resurrection, focusing on Jesus’ empty tomb, his post-mortem appearances, and the origin of his disciples’ belief in Jesus’ resurrection. This revised edition includes Appendices in response to the competing views of J. Robinson, J. D. Crossan, G. Lüdemann, and D. Allison.

The Life and Thought of Herbert Butterfield
  • Language: en
  • Pages: 399

The Life and Thought of Herbert Butterfield

Once recalled only for The Whig Interpretation of History (1931) and Christianity and History (1949), Sir Herbert Butterfield's contribution to western culture has undergone an astonishing revaluation over the past twenty years. What has been left out of this reappraisal is the man himself. Yet the force of Butterfield's writings is weakened without some knowledge of the man behind them: his temperament, contexts and personal torments. Previous authors have been unable to supply a rounded portrait for lack of available material, particularly a dearth of sources for the crucial period before the outbreak of war in 1939. Michael Bentley's original, startling 2011 biography draws on sources never seen before. They enable him to present a new Butterfield, one deeply troubled by self-doubt, driven by an urgent sexuality and plagued by an unending tension between history, science and God in a mind as hard and cynical as it was loving and charitable.

Fieldwork in Familiar Places
  • Language: en
  • Pages: 276

Fieldwork in Familiar Places

The persistence of deep moral disagreements--across cultures as well as within them--has created widespread skepticism about the objectivity of morality. Moral relativism, moral pessimism, and the denigration of ethics in comparison with science are the results. Fieldwork in Familiar Places challenges the misconceptions about morality, culture, and objectivity that support these skepticisms, to show that we can take moral disagreement seriously and yet retain our aspirations for moral objectivity. Michele Moody-Adams critically scrutinizes the anthropological evidence commonly used to support moral relativism. Drawing on extensive knowledge of the relevant anthropological literature, she dis...