Our Knowledge of the Past
A Philosophy of Historiography

This book presents a philosophical analysis of the disciplines that offer scientific knowledge of the past.

Aviezer Tucker (Author)

9780521120777, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 1 October 2009

304 pages
22.9 x 15.2 x 1.7 cm, 0.5 kg

Review of the hardback: '… a well-informed and accessible guide to the main modern approaches to the key questions that underlie the writing of history …' Historiographia Linguistica

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.

Introduction. The philosophy of historiography
1. Consensus and historiographic knowledge
2. The history of knowledge of history
3. The theory of scientific historiography
4. Historiographic opinion
5. Historiographic explanation
6. The limits of historiographic knowledge
Conclusion. Historiography and history.

Subject Areas: History of ideas [JFCX], Philosophy: epistemology & theory of knowledge [HPK], Historiography [HBAH]