Epistemological Questions: Is History a Science?



The theory that is involved in science and history is not the type where they are set in stone, but rather that which are open to refutation, verification, and modification. All hypotheses are subject to revision in light of this thinking.

The question whether History can be considered akin to science as a legitimate pursuit of knowledge must be addressed in order to truly understand the discipline of history, its methods, flaws, and complexities. This five part blog will focus on the issues surrounding this discussion.

1. History deals with the unique, Science deals with the general

History has changed over time. The way we learn history today and the aspects we focus on differ from those long ago. In its inception history was a form of record-keeping, an annalistic tool used to chronicle one war after another; during the 19th century history was preoccupied with Kings and Kingdoms and the rule of leaders. During these periods history would fit the prescription above, dealing with unique events and peoples. However, with the advent of social history the discipline has changed its focus and purpose. History now "is not really interested in the unique, but what is general in the unique."

Just as in science, the materials they use are unique and original but the focus is not on a specific rock or sample, but on what that specimen can verify or deny in a general scheme. Any viable field of study must balance the importance of the unique with the general, with fact and interpretation.

History, specifically the corollaries of social science and sociology, more so than ever are geared toward discovering the lessons of history, if any are to be found, with an eye bent toward understanding the present in light of the past. The days of dictating one war after another, one barbarian after the next without the insight and purpose of shedding some light on some conceptual scheme or generalization are dwindling.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Python 3.4 - Caesar Cipher

Caesar ciphers take a list of values and rotates through them to give them a different value. The program below takes from the alphabet and creates a cipher of the message. It returns many variations of the cipher then returns the actual message. import string import collections def caesar (rotate_string , number_to_rotate_by): upper = collections.deque(string.ascii_uppercase) lower = collections.deque(string.ascii_lowercase) upper.rotate(number_to_rotate_by) lower.rotate(number_to_rotate_by) upper = '' .join( list (upper)) lower = '' .join( list (lower)) return rotate_string.translate( str .maketrans(string.ascii_uppercase , upper)).translate( str .maketrans(string.ascii_lowercase , lower)) my_string = 'This is the message' my_string2 = caesar(my_string , 1 ) for i in range ( len (string.ascii_uppercase)): print (i , "|" , caesar(my_string2 , i)) /Users/mattfassnacht/PycharmProjects/untitled12/venv/bin/pyt
Read more

UML - Use Case Diagram

Image
UML stands for unified modeling language. It is used to create a blueprint for a project. A use case diagram is a list of steps needed to reach a goal. Its defines what is required and how those requirements are met. You will narrow down what you have to have. Before you create a use case diagram you need to create a description of the use case diagram. For example the above would look something like this: Use case descriptions includes who the actors are, what the triggers are, and other elements. Beta versions of a project have Shall requirements, should requirements can be done but can be done later. A use case diagram uses stereotypes to represent an element of your system. https://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/use-case-diagram https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OkC7HKtiZC0
Read more