The Philosophy of History An Introduction

by Day, Mark

• ISBN13: 9780826488480
• ISBN10: 082648848X
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2008-03-31
• Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic

Summary

This book provides an accessible and comprehensive introduction to all the major philosophical concepts, issues and debates raised by history.

Author Biography

Mark Day is Lecturer in Philosophy at Nottingham Trent University, UK

Table of Contents

List of figures and tables	p. x
Preface	p. xi
Evidence of the Past
An introduction to historical practice	p. 3
The past in the present	p. 3
The professionalization of history	p. 5
Relations with the past	p. 9
Forms of historical production	p. 12
Further reading and study questions	p. 15
Historical methodology	p. 16
Scissors and paste	p. 16
Rules of historical reasoning	p. 20
Peer reviews	p. 21
A philosophical approach to historical reasoning	p. 25
Primary sources	p. 27
Further reading and study questions	p. 29
Reasoning from the evidence	p. 31
Bayesianism	p. 31
The limitations of Bayesianism	p. 34
Explanation and inference	p. 37
Unwinding the spool	p. 40
Explanatory virtues	p. 42
The preservation of testimony	p. 44
Further reading and study questions	p. 49
History as Science
Abstraction and laws	p. 53
What's so great about science?	p. 53
Abstraction and quantification	p. 55
Positivism	p. 59
Laws	p. 62
Against universality	p. 65
Rehabilitating causation	p. 69
Further reading and study questions	p. 72
The causal sciences	p. 73
Against causation in history	p. 73
Singular causation	p. 76
Causation and contrasts	p. 80
What is a historical theory?	p. 83
Justifying historical theories: comparison and contrast	p. 88
Justifying historical theories: explaining how	p. 91
Further reading and study questions	p. 93
Theory and particular	p. 95
The historian's role	p. 95
A priori argument from particularity	p. 96
Applying general terms	p. 98
The 'chemical' sciences	p. 102
Combining theories in practice	p. 105
Narrative and theory	p. 107
Is naturalism the best account of historical practice?	p. 110
Further reading and study questions	p. 111
History as Interpretation
Feeling and thought	p. 115
Questions in the philosophy of interpretation	p. 115
Empathy	p. 118
Collingwood and re-enactment	p. 121
Living history	p. 123
All history is the history of thought	p. 126
Further reading and study questions	p. 129
Actions, reasons and norms	p. 130
Rationality	p. 130
What is it to act rationally?	p. 133
Meaning and society	p. 137
Social norms	p. 139
The Great Cat Massacre	p. 144
Interim conclusion: interpretation and evidence	p. 147
Further reading and study questions	p. 149
From Interpretation to Discourse
Subject and object	p. 153
Historicism	p. 153
Objectivity and evaluation	p. 156
Selection and importance	p. 159
Dialogue	p. 162
Further reading and study questions	p. 166
Narrative	p. 167
What are narratives?	p. 167
Narrative and discourse	p. 171
Metahistory	p. 174
Narrative and truth	p. 178
Collective narrative and metanarrative	p. 181
Further reading and study questions	p. 184
Truth and Reality
The absent past	p. 187
Overview: correspondence to reality	p. 188
Overview: anti-realism	p. 190
Beyond statement truth	p. 194
Qualified historical scepticism	p. 199
Construction of the past	p. 204
Present truth and past truth	p. 207
Further reading and study questions	p. 209
Underdetermination	p. 211
Coherence and choice	p. 211
Bayesianism reconsidered	p. 214
Historiographical disagreement	p. 217
Social Construction	p. 220
Linguistic Idealism	p. 222
Practical relations to the past	p. 225
Further reading and study questions	p. 228
Conclusion	p. 230
Notes	p. 233
References	p. 243
Index	p. 251
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