Lesson 1-1 - The Meaning of History

THE MEANING OF HISTORY, SOURCES OF

HISTORICAL DATA, & HISTORICAL CRITICISMS

Overview
Lesson 1 introduces history as a discipline and as a narrative. It discusses the
limitation of historical knowledge, history as the subjective process of re-creation, and
historical method and historiography. Lesson 2 presents the sources of historical data,
the written and non-written sources of history, as well as the differentiation of primary
and secondary sources of information or data. Lesson 3 discusses historical criticisms,
namely, external and internal criticisms. These are important aspects in ascertaining the
authenticity and reliability of primary sources upon which narratives are crafted.

Lesson 1: THE MEANING OF HISTORY

History is derived from the Greek word historia which means learning by
inquiry. The Greek philosopher, Aristotle, looked upon history as the systematic
accounting of a set of natural phenomena, that is, taking into consideration the
chronological arrangement of the account. This explained that knowledge is derived
through conducting a process of scientific investigation of past events.
The word History is referred usually for accounts of phenomena, especially

human affairs in chronological order. There are theories constructed by historians in
investigating history: the factual history and the speculative history. Factual history
presents readers the plain and basic information vis-à-vis the events that took place
(what), the time and date with which the events happened (when), the place with which
the events took place, and the people that were involved (who). Speculative history, on
the other hand, goes beyond facts because it is concerned about the reasons for which
events happened (why), and the way they happened (how). It tries to speculate on the
cause and effect of an event (Cantal, Cardinal, Espino & Galindo, 2014).
History deals with the study of past events. Individuals who write about history
are called historians. They seek to understand the present by examining what went
before. They undertake arduous historical research to come up with a meaningful and
organized rebuilding of the past. But whose past are we talking about? This is the basic
question that the historian needs to answer because this sets the purpose and
framework of a historical account. Hence, a salient feature of historical writing is the
facility to give meaning and impact value to a group of people about their past. The
practice of historical writing is called historiography, the traditional method in doing
historical research that focus on gathering of documents from different libraries and
archives to form a pool of evidence needed in making a descriptive or analytical
narrative. The modern historical writing does not only include examination of
documents but also the use of research methods from related areas of study such as
archeology and geography.
The Limitation of Historical Knowledge
The incompleteness of records has limited man’s knowledge of history. Most

human affairs happen without leaving any evidence or records of any kind, no artifacts,
or if there are, no further evidence of the human setting in which to place surviving
artifacts. Although it may have happened, but the past has perished forever with only
occasional traces. The whole history of the past (called history-as-actuality) can be
known to a historian only through the surviving records (history-as-record), and most of
history-as-record is only a tiny part the whole phenomenon. Even the archeological and
anthropological discoveries are only small parts discovered from the total past.
Historians study the records or evidences that survived the time. They tell history
from what they understood as a credible part of the record. However, their claims may
remain variable as there can be historical records that could be discovered, which may
affirm or refute those that they have already presented. This explains the
“incompleteness” of the “object” that historians study.
History as the Subjective Process of Re-creation
From the incomplete evidence, historians strive to restore the total past of
mankind. They do it from the point of view that human beings live in different times and
that their experiences maybe somehow comparable, or that their experiences may have
significantly differed contingent on the place and time. For the historian, history
becomes only that part of the human past which can be meaningfully reconstructed
from the available records and from inferences regarding their setting.
In short, the historian’s aim is verisimilitude (the truth, authenticity, plausibility)

about a past. Unlike the study of the natural science that has objectively measurable
phenomena, the study of history is a subjective process as documents and relics are
scattered and do not together comprise the total object that the historian is studying.
Some of the natural scientists, such as geologists and paleo-zoologists who study fossils
from the traces of a perished past, greatly resemble historians in this regard, but they
differ at certain points since historians deal with human testimonies as well as physical
traces.
Historical Method and Historiography
The process of critically examining and analyzing the records and survivals of the
past is called historical method. The imaginative reconstruction of the past from the
data derived by that process is called historiography. By means of historical method
and historiography (both of which are frequently grouped together simply as historical
method) the historian endeavors to reconstruct as much of the past of mankind as
he/she can. Even in this limited effort, however, the historian is handicapped. He rarely
can tell the story even of a part of the past as it occurred. For the past conceived of as
something that “actually occurred” places obvious limits upon the kinds of record and of
imagination that the historian may use. These limits distinguish history from fiction,
poetry, drama, and fantasy.
Historical analysis is also an important element of historical method. In

historical analysis, historians: (1) select the subject to investigate; (2) collect probable
sources of information on the subject; (3) examine the sources genuineness, in part of in
whole; and (4) extract credible “particulars” from the sources (or parts of sources). The
synthesis of the “particulars” thus derived is historiography. Synthesis and analysis
cannot be entirely separated since they have a common ground, which is the ability to
understand the past through some meaningful, evocative and convincing historical or
cross-disciplinary connections between a given historical issue and other historical
contexts, periods, or themes.

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THE MEANING OF HISTORY, SOURCES OF

HISTORICAL DATA, & HISTORICAL CRITICISMS

Lesson 1: THE MEANING OF HISTORY

The word History is referred usually for accounts of phenomena, especially

The incompleteness of records has limited man’s knowledge of history. Most

History as the Subjective Process of Re-creation

In short, the historian’s aim is verisimilitude (the truth, authenticity, plausibility)

Historical Method and Historiography

Historical analysis is also an important element of historical method. In

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