Monday, January 20, 2014

Is History a Science?

History is the study of past events, particularly in human affairs. Similarly to natural sciences and human sciences history tries to understand the causes of things and asks plenty of questions. Human sciences are trying to discover patterns in human society and human actions, this is quite similar to history as it is a search for patterns as well, some say that the point of learning history is so that we don't repeat past mistakes and instead learn from them. However, a major difference between the two is that 'science begins when objectification begins' this is not true for history as this objectification cannot be achieved. In my opinion, I feel that  there are quite a few similarities between history and human sciences, however, human sciences deals with facts and investigations  while history relies on unanswered questions and missing information. Therefore, I feel that history is not a science as human sciences are mainly concerned with discovering something whereas history is concerned with uncovering something. 

1 comment:

  1. Good ideas and a personal take on the question. However, your conclusion can be confusing as the difference between uncovering something and discovering something is very semantic. You are not a Greek philosopher, so you should ground your reflections into real life situations.

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