Our Knowledge of the Past

Erscheinungsjahr 2015
ISBN: 978-0-521-83415-5
Verlag: Cambridge University Press

Buch, Englisch, 302 Seiten, Format (B × H): 157 mm x 235 mm, Gewicht: 644 g

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 new approach to historiography and will be read by philosophers, historians and social scientists interested in the methodological foundations of their disciplines.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Tucker, Aviezer

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Philosophie Geschichte der Westlichen Philosophie
• Geisteswissenschaften Philosophie Erkenntnistheorie
• Geisteswissenschaften Philosophie Wissenschaftstheorie, Wissenschaftsphilosophie
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Geschichtliche Themen Kultur- und Ideengeschichte
• Interdisziplinäres Wissenschaften Wissenschaften: Allgemeines Wissenschaften: Theorie, Epistemologie, Methodik

Inhaltsverzeichnis

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.

Über Autor(innen)

Tucker, Aviezer
Aviezer Tucker teaches at Queen's University Belfast. He has held research fellowships at the Australian National University, New York University, Columbia University and the Central European University. He has taught at New York University, Long Island University, Trinity College and Palacky University, and he is past president of the Society for Philosophy of History. He works on epistemology, philosophy of science, philosophy of history and social and political philosophy. In addition to Our Knowledge of the Past Professor Tucker has also published The Philosophy and Politics of Czech Dissidence: From Patocka to Havel (Pittsburgh University Press, 2000) and numerous articles in journals like Philosophy, Inquiry, Erkenntnis, Studies in History, Philosophy of Science, History and Theory and Philosophy of the Social Sciences.