A Companion to the Philosophy of History and Historiography

A COMPANION TO THE PHILOSOPHY OF HISTORY AND HISTORIOGRAPHY The philosophy of historiography examines our representations and knowledge of the past, the relation between evidence, inference, explanation and narrative. Do we possess knowledge of the past? Do we just have probable beliefs about the past, or is historiography a piece of convincing fiction? The philosophy of history is the direct philosophical examination of history, whether it is necessary or contingent, whether it has a direction or whether it is coincidental, and if it has a direction, what it is, and how and why it is unfolding? The fifty entries in this Companion cover the main issues in the philosophies of historiography and history, including natural history and the practices of historians. Written by an international and multi-disciplinary group of experts, these clearly written entries present a cutting-edge updated picture of current research in the philosophies of historiography and history. This Companion will be of interest to philosophers, historians, natural historians, and social scientists.

A COMPANION TO THE PHILOSOPHY OF HISTORY AND HISTORIOGRAPHYThe philosophy of historiography examines our representations and knowledge of the past, the relation between evidence, inference, explanation and narrative. Do we possess knowledge of the past? Do we just have probable beliefs about the past, or is historiography a piece of convincing fiction? The philosophy of history is the direct philosophical examination of history, whether it is necessary or contingent, whether it has a direction or whether it is coincidental, and if it has a direction, what it is, and how and why it is unfolding?The fifty entries in this Companion cover the main issues in the philosophies of historiography and history, including natural history and the practices of historians. Written by an international and multi-disciplinary group of experts, these clearly written entries present a cutting-edge updated picture of current research in the philosophies of historiography and history.This Companion will be of interest to philosophers, historians, natural historians, and social scientists.

List of Contributors ixAcknowledgments xiGlossary of Terms xii1 Introduction 1Aviezer TuckerPart I Major Fields 72 Philosophy of Historiography 9Peter Kosso3 Philosophy of History 26ZdenFk VaSíCek4 Philosophical Issues in Natural History and Its Historiography 44Carol E. Cleland5 Historians and Philosophy of Historiography 63John ZammitoPart II Basic Problems 856 Historiographic Evidence and Confirmation 87Mark Day and Gregory Radick7 Causation in Historiography 98Aviezer Tucker8 Historiographic Counterfactuals 109Elazar Weinryb9 Historical Necessity and Contingency 120Yemima Ben-Menahem10 Explanation in Historiography 131Graham Macdonald and Cynthia Macdonald11 Historiographic Understanding 142Giuseppina D'Oro12 Colligation 152C. Behan McCullagh13 The Laws of History 162Stephan Berry14 Historiographic Objectivity 172Paul Newall15 Realism about the Past 181Murray Murphey16 Anti-realism about the Past 190Fabrice Pataut17 Narrative and Interpretation 199F. R. Ankersmit18 The Ontology of the Objects of Historiography 209Lars Udehn19 Origins: Common Causes in Historiographic Reasoning 220Aviezer Tucker20 Phylogenetic Inference 231Matt Haber21 Historicism 243Robert D'Amico22 Ethics and the Writing of Historiography 253Jonathan Gorman23 Logical Fallacies of Historians 262Paul Newall24 Historical Fallacies of Historians 274Carlos Spoerhase and Colin G. KingPart III Philosophy and Sub-fields of Historiography 28525 Philosophy of History of Science 287Nicholas Jardine26 Philosophies of Historiography and the Social Sciences 297Harold Kincaid27 The Philosophy of Evolutionary Theory 307Michael Ruse28 The Philosophy of Geology 318Rob Inkpen29 Philosophy of Archaeology 330Ben Jeffares30 Reductionism: Historiography and Psychology 342Cynthia Macdonald and Graham Macdonald31 Historiography and Myth 353Mary Lefkowitz32 Historiography and Memory 362Marie-Claire Lavabre33 Historiographic Schools 371Christopher LloydPart IV Classical Schools and Philosophers of Historiography and History 38134 Leopold Ranke 383Thomas Gil35 Scientific Historiography 393Chris Lorenz36 Darwin 404John S. Wilkins37 Logical Empiricism and Logical Positivism 416Krzysztof Brzechczyn38 Jewish and Christian Philosophy of History 427Samuel Moyn39 Muslim Philosophy of History 437Zaid Ahmad40 Vico 446Joseph Mali41 Kant and Herder 457Sharon Anderson-Gold42 Hegel 468Tom Rockmore43 Neo-Kantianism 477Charles Bambach44 Marx 488Tom Rockmore45 Collingwood and Croce 498Stein Helgeby46 Phenomenology 508David Weberman47 Jan Patocka 518Ivan Chvatík48 Hermeneutics 529Rudolf A. Makkreel49 Postmodernism 540Beverley Southgate50 Philosophy of History at the End of the Cold War 550Krishan KumarIndex 561