Abstract
In view of what has been said above concerning the domain of the general methodology of sciences and the conclusions resulting therefrom for specialized methodologies we can list the following three fields of interest of the methodology of history:
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(1)
reflections on cognitive operations in historical research, i.e., on the science of history interpreted as the craft of the historians;
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(2)
reflections on the results of research, i.e., on the science of history interpreted as a set of statements on the domain under investigation;
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(3)
reflections on the subject matter of historical research, i.e., on history in the sense of the past events.
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References
He is credited with the coining of that term in 1756 (by J. Bury and other authors).
Characteristically enough, the periodical History and Theory has the explanatory subtitle: Studies in the Philosophy of History.
Those authors whose “introductions to historical research”are adapted to the requirements of the teaching of history, are guided by somewhat different considerations. They select issues concerned with the branches indicated above and also take into account the technical aspects of historical research (cf. W. Moszczeńska, Wstęp do badań historycznych (Introduction to Historical Research), Warszawa 1960, and B. Miśkiewicz’s book bearing the same title, Poznan 1964). The scope of such approaches is under discussion.
K. Ajdukiewicz, Pragmatic Logic, éd. cit., p. 188.
In this connection note the definition of inference, to be used hereafter: “Inference is a mental process by which, on the strength of a more or less categorical acceptance of premisses, we arrive at the acceptance of the conclusion which we previously either did not accept at all or accepted less categorically, the degree of certainty of acceptance of the conclusion being not higher than the degree of certainty of acceptance of the premisses”. (K. Ajdukiewicz, op. cit., p. 107). It is assumed that the term reasoning is broader than inference, even though these two (together with the term method) are being used alternately. (Cf. J. Giedymin, Z problemów logicznych analizy historycznej (Selected Logical Issues of Historical Analyses), Poznań 1961, p. 28).
H. Stonert, op. cit., p. 230.
This classification corresponds to the earlier division into the general methodology of sciences and the (various) specialized methodologies, and has its justification in the latter. On the concept of the methodology of history see V. Husa, “Metoda — metodika-metodologie”, Československy Časopis Historicky, VI, pp. 311-5.
Ch. Morazé, Introduction à l’histoire économique, Paris 1948 (first published in 1943).
Ch. Verlinden, Introduction à l’histoire économique, Coimbra 1948.
Cf. A. Fanfani, Introduzione alio studio della stofia economica, Milano 1960 (3rd ed.); C. Beutin, Einführung in die Wirtschaftsgeschichte, Köln-Graz 1958; W. Kula, Problemy i me tody historii gospodarczej (Issues and Methods in Economic History), Warszawa 1963, p. 7.
See also Derek J. de Solla Price, Science Since Babylon, New Haven-London 1961.
More general works are for example: G. P. Gooch, History and Historians in the Nineteenth Century, London 1913; K. Ritter, Die Entwicklung der Geschichtswissenschaft, München-Berlin 1916; J. T. Shotwell, An Introduction to the History of History, New York 1923; E. Fueter, Geschichte der neueren Historiographie, München-Berlin 1936; J. W. Thompson, A History of the Writing of History, vols. I and II, New York 1942; H. Srbik, Geist und Geschichte vom deutschen Humanismus bis zur Gegenwart, vols. I and II, München-Salzburg 1950-1; H. Butterfield, Man on His Past, Cambridge 1955.
W. Kaegi, Jacob Burckhardt. Eine Biographie, vols. I-III, Basel 1945–56.
M. H. Serejski, Przeszlosc a terazniejszosc. Szkice i studia historiograficzne (The Past and the Present. Essays and Studies in Historiography), Wroclaw-Warszawa-Kraków 1965, pp. 12–3. See especially the essays on “The Issues in the History of Historiography”and “The History of Historiography and the Science of History”.
S. Herbst, “Historia wojskowa, tresc, dzieje, metoda, metodologia”(Military History, Its Meaning, History, Method, and Methodology), in: Zeszyty Nau-kowe WAP, Historia, vol. VII, No. 5, Warszawa 1961, pp. 30–9; B. Miśkiewicz in his work O metodyce badan historyczno-wojskowych (Methods in the Study of Military History), Poznan 1961, is concerned with the following issues: the war as understood in military history; the relationships between war, army and military art, on the one hand, and history, on the other; the interconnections between war, army, and military art; trends in the study of military history; the necessary competences of the military historian; attainments and tasks of military history. This list shows that the author is mainly concerned with the subject matter of military history.
Z zagadnień metodologicznych historii wychowania (Methodological Issues in the History of Education), Łódź 1965.
The auxiliary historical sciences traditionally include: the science of the sources, the science of archives and libraries, palaeography and neography, diplomatics, sphragistics, chronology, genealogy, heraldry, numismatics, metrology, and historical statistics (i.e., those disciplines which refer to the sources and are concerned with their external and internal criticism). Cf. A. von Brandt, Werk-zeug des Historikers. Eine Einführung in die historischen Hilfwissenschaften, Stuttgart 1958 (3rd ed. 1963).
The title of Lelewel’s book is Nauki dajqce poznać źródla historyczne (The Sciences Which Make it Possible to Acquire the Knowledge of Historical Sources). The term historische Hilfswissenschaften was introduced by Theodor Sickel, an Austrian historian and palaeographer (fl. 2nd half of the 19th cent.).
Cf. e.g. Chronologia polska (The Chronology of Poland), B. Włodarski (ed.), Warszawa 1957, with a preface by T. Manteuffel (who wrote on p. 5: “Before proceeding to the interpretation of a given source we have first to understand it”).
W. Semkowicz, Paleografia łacińska (Latin Palaeography), Kraków 1951, p. 5.
M. Handelsman, Historyka (The Methodology of Historical Research), Warszawa 1928, pp. 41 ff
Heuristics is occasionally also described as an auxiliary historical science.
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Topolski, J. (1976). The Subject Matter of the Methodology of History. In: Methodology of History. Synthese Library, vol 88. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-010-1123-5_3
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