Is history an objective discipline? If not is it still worthwhile to study history?
Answers
Answer:
Explanation:
I suppose the literal answer is “both” or “neither.” If history means what happened in the past, it's objective: it happened. If a history is an account of what happened in the past, with or without an explicit attribution of meaning or interpretation, it is by definition subjective. History is about interpreting the past; it is a “spin” on the historical facts. As the scholar E.H. Carr noted, history has been called a “hard core of facts” surrounded by a “pulp of disputable interpretation.” Without interpretation—“the pulpy part of the fruit”—there is no meaning, only disconnected facts.
Most people memorise dates, names and facts when they study history. This information is not useful in everyday life or for the future. ... For this reason, it makes learning history a waste of time because events can also be interpreted in a different way which makes what we learn in history less valuable.
One might wonder how history is being documented or written and who is behind the selection of what to categorize as a parcel of history. ... In a nutshell, history is man-made and if this has any significance, it must refer to the fact that there is no absolute truth and anything can be questioned.
Answer:
Explanation:
I suppose the literal answer is “both” or “neither.” If history means what happened in the past, it's objective: it happened. If a history is an account of what happened in the past, with or without an explicit attribution of meaning or interpretation, it is by definition subjective. History is about interpreting the past; it is a “spin” on the historical facts. As the scholar E.H. Carr noted, history has been called a “hard core of facts” surrounded by a “pulp of disputable interpretation.” Without interpretation—“the pulpy part of the fruit”—there is no meaning, only disconnected facts.
Most people memorise dates, names and facts when they study history. This information is not useful in everyday life or for the future. ... For this reason, it makes learning history a waste of time because events can also be interpreted in a different way which makes what we learn in history less valuable.
One might wonder how history is being documented or written and who is behind the selection of what to categorize as a parcel of history. ... In a nutshell, history is man-made and if this has any significance, it must refer to the fact that there is no absolute truth and anything can be questioned.