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History as an Area of Knowledge

History as an Area of Knowledge. Write down the two most significant events that have happened at the College since you arrived in the summer of 2009. Who do you think is best qualified to write a history of RCNUWC: a graduate? a teacher? a member of the board?

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History as an Area of Knowledge

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  1. History as an Area of Knowledge

  2. Write down the two most significant events that have happened at the College since you arrived in the summer of 2009. • Who do you think is best qualified to write a history of RCNUWC: • a graduate? • a teacher? • a member of the board? • a local journalist? • Why? TaK - History

  3. “Historians are dangerous people. • They are capable of upsetting everything” Khruschev • “He who controls the present, controls the past. • He who controls the past, controls the future.” Orwell • “If you do not like the past, change it.” Burton TaK - History

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  6. “Those who don’t study the past are condemned to repeat it” Santayana “What experience and history teach is this - that people and governments have never learned anything from history” Hegel TaK - History

  7. To what extent do you think that people keep making the same mistakes? Why? TaK - History

  8. Why should you care about the past? What dangers are there in being obsessed with the past? What dangers are there in ignoring the past? TaK - History

  9. “History is bunk. It’s tradition. We don’t want tradition. We want to live in the present.”Henry Ford TaK - History

  10. What is history? • Is it enough to define it as “the study of the past”? • Concerned with: • Evidence (the present traces of the past) • Significance (concerned with significant events) • Explanation & Understanding (not only describing the past, but also explaining it) TaK - History

  11. Different histories • Over-reliance on the written word? • In parts of West Africa, history is told through song by a griot, a respected wandering musician • Among many Australian Aborigines, the land itself is history. Geographical features reflect the creation stories of the ‘dreamtime’ TaK - History

  12. What is history? • Micro histories. Our own. • “For the want of a nail…….” TaK - History

  13. How can the past be known? • Primary Sources • (materials produced at the time of an event by people who were there) • Fallible eye-witness • Social bias • Deliberate manipulation • Secondary sources(second-hand accounts) TaK - History

  14. Writing history • History is the selection of a selection • Advantages of hindsight • Disadvantages of hindsight TaK - History

  15. Perspectives in history • Study the historian before you study his facts • Reading an 18th Century account of the 13th Century will possibly tell you as much about the 18th as it will about the 13th Century • Propaganda and persuasion TaK - History

  16. Some Problems of Bias • Topic choice bias • Confirmation bias • National bias TaK - History

  17. Theories of history • The ‘Great Person’ theory • Economic Determinism • No meaning, only chance! • “Had Cleopatra’s nose been shorter, • the whole history of the world • would have been different” • Blaise Pascal TaK - History

  18. Why study history? • History gives us a sense of identity • History is a defence against propaganda • History enriches our understanding of human nature TaK - History

  19. Some key points: • History seeks to study and explain the significant events of the past on the basis of currently existing evidence • The study of History can be justified on the grounds that it contributes to our sense of identity, is a defence against propaganda, and enriches our understanding of human nature • History is based on primary sources, but since they are selective they cannot always be taken at face value • In seeking to explain the past the historian has the benefit of hindsight which can sometimes result in hindsight bias • We can perhaps get closer to the truth by exploring the past from a variety of perspectives • Historical events rarely have a single cause but are usually the result of a combination of factors TaK - History

  20. Essays 1) “We see and understand things not as they are but as we are.” Discuss this claim in relation to at least two ways of knowing. 2) Are some ways of knowing more likely than others to lead to truth? Mathematics Ethics Sense Perception Natural Sciences Reason Ways of Knowing Knower(s) Arts Emotion Language Human Sciences Areas of Knowledge History Theory of Knowledge Diagram

  21. Reason What fallacies arise in studying history? Maths What role do statistics play in history? Perception How reliable is eye-witness testimony as a primary source? TaK - History Ethics Should historians make moral judgments about the past? Natural Sciences Can the scientific method be applied to history? History Arts How is history similar to fiction? How is it different? Human Sciences How does history differ from other social sciences? Language Can historical events be described in neutral language?

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