Defining History part i

• DEFINING HISTORY

• History as a discipline has been defined differently by different scholars:

ü History is the totality of past events.

ü History is a narration of the events which have happened among mankind, including an account of the rise and fall of nations, as well as of other great changes which have affected the political and social condition of the human race

ü History is a story about the past that is both true and significant.

ü History is a narrative of events in the order in which they happened with their causes and effects.

• Continuation…..

• History is the record of past events, it records and interpret past events involving human being

• History refers to the formal written accounts of related natural phenomena

• History is all that is remembered of the past as preserved in writing.

• Tosh (2009)writes to the Greeks, the one who was writing about history was known as a Histor, meaning a judge or a referee. Therefore, according to the Greeks , history does not only mean the past but direct observation. Hence Greek historians separates history from what they did not see.



• Continuation…..

– History therefore has been defined by different scholars in different perspectives.

– It can be observed that, some scholars defined history in a narrow view as the study of the past.

– However, other scholars have defined history in a broader view maintaining that history is the endless dialog/ interaction between the historian and historical facts/events.

• Historians, therefore have a function of selecting historical facts/events and interpret them so that the past can speak to the present.

• In other words, without the interaction of the historian and historical events, the facts or events are speechless. That is facts can not speak by themselves, unless they interact with a historian.

• Importance of studying history

– It is through history one comes to understand his or her origin. This is facilitated through the study of evolution of man.

– Through studying history we can inject or impart the sense of patriotism. A sense of developing ones country, a sense of defending ones country, and a sense of appreciating ones culture.

– It is thorough the study of history that the solutions to complicated problems of development can be found.

• For example, it through the study of history that we can clearly understand the nature of Africa's underdevelopment, poverty, exploitation, dependence and civil wars . Some of these problems have external origin while others have internal origin.



• Continuation……

– History also facilitate the transmission of values and attitudes from one generation to the other. The study of “what actually happened in past” facilitates the transmission of values and attitude from one generation to the next.

– Historical knowledge can also be applied in other disciplines such as civics, political science, philosophy, and science subjects.

– History helps to broaden the understanding of humanity by recognizing sameness and difference throughout the recorded past. This is important because we can only know ourselves by knowing how we resemble and how we differ from others. Acquaintance with human past is the only way to such self knowledge.



• Continuation….

– The only clue to what man can do is what man has done. The value of history, then, is that it teaches us what man has done and thus what man is.

– It has been said that the one who controls the past, controls the future. Our view of history shapes the way we view the present and therefore it dictates what answers we offer for existing problems. In other words, good understanding of the past would help to deal wisely with present situations and problems.

– History provides an account of the ways in which a particular society has changed and developed over time.

– History helps us to define our identity, who we are, where we came from, and how we are all connected.

• Continuation…

DEFINING PHILOSOPHY

• The word philosophy is derived from two Greek words:

» Philo meaning love and

» Sophia meaning Wisdom.

» In philosophy Wisdom is used to mean the search for truth.

– The term philosophy can simply be defined as Love for wisdom, that is the desire to search for truth.

– Generally the term philosophy can mean the desire and attempt to reason out so as to come to reality or truth.

– Other scholars like Ishumi and Nyirenda (2002) maintains that, philosophy deals with rational critical thinking about the general nature of the world reality. It is all about inquiring and exploring realities of human life and the world.

• Branches of philosophy

• Philosophy has four main branches:

» Metaphysics

» Epistemology

» Axiology

» Logic

– Metaphysics:

This word has a greek origin of two words: meta meaning beyond or after and physika meaning physics, generally science.

Therefore, metaphysics can be defined as a branch of philosophy which explores issues which are beyond the realm of science. It deals with issues which have no scientific explanations. Issues which can not e proved scientifically

• Continuation….

– For example:

» Existence of spiritual being (soul)

» The nature of the universe

» Life after death

– Branches of metaphysics:

» Ontology

» Natural theology

» Universal science

• Ontology: this deals with the study of the existence of things. It also seeks to describe and understand various observable things that exists on the universe. For example various types of animal species, various types of plants, etc.

• Continuation…..

• Natural theology: this deals with the study of God and creation

• Universal science: this deals with the study of the first principles. These are the first classic laws of thoughts, they governed early forms of human thoughts of reasons. These laws cab be categorized into three:

– The law of identity: this law helps to identify things as they are (the law of identification) and differentiate them from others.

» This law states that, each thing is composed of its own unique set of characteristics, qualities and features. These characteristics are called essence.

• Things that have the same essence are the same things while things that have different essence are different things.

• Continuation….

– The law of non contradiction: there are at least three levels of stating this law:

» A thing can not both be A and not A at the same time and in the same sense.

» A thing can not both exist / belong and not exist/belong at the same time and in the same sense.

» A statement can not both be true and not true at the same time and in the same sense.

– The law of excluded middle.

» This law states that, the statement is either true or false. There is no middle ground between being true and being false. That is why is called the law of excluded middle, because it excludes the middle ground of truth and falsity.



• Continuation….

– Epistemology; the word epistemology originates from two Greek word:

» Epistem: which means knowledge

» Logos: which means study

Therefore, epistemology can be defined as the branch of philosophy which deals with the definition of knowledge, its sources, scope and limitations.

The basic questions are:

• What is knowledge?

• How do we obtain knowledge?

• How much do we know?

Thus, epistemology studies about the nature, source and validity of knowledge

• Continuation….

– Axiology: this is the branch of philosophy which deals with the study of values. The two values studied in axiology are as follows:

Aesthetics: this is the study of the sense, perception and appreciation of beauty (the quality that people, places, or things have that make them very attractive to look at).

– Aesthetics broadly includes everything to do with appreciation of art (both performing: music, dance and drama and Fine art: paintings, sculpture, photography, print media), culture, and nature.

– Aesthetics also examines how the perception of beauty is determined by taste and judgment.

• Continuation……

Ethics: this is concerned with questions of morality. Morality is used to refer to belief or ideas about what is right and wrong and about how people should behave. It deals with how best people should live.

» Ethics seeks to understand the basis of morals, how they develop, how they are, and should be followed.

» Ethics thus emphasizes on the best way to live



– Logic : logic is concerned with the various forms of reasoning and arriving at genuine conclusions. It includes the system of statements and arguments . Thus, logic is the study of the principles and methods of correct reasoning.

• Defining History of Philosophy

History of Philosophy

Is the study of philosophical ideas and concepts through time. It examine the evolution of philosophers and their philosophical ideas ( how philosophy evolved over time ?)

– History of philosophy covers :

• The study of lives of philosophers

• Connection and relationship between philosophical school of thoughts

• The trend of philosophy; is philosophy progressing , retrogressing or static?

Generally, history of philosophy seeks to examine, the lives of philosophers, and their doctrines, in historical context

• Defining Philosophy of History

• Is an attempt to think reflectively (understanding the nature and causality ) on the human historical events so as to interpret them, and analyze their significances to mankind.

• In other words, philosophy of history is an application of philosophical thoughts and methods in studying and writing or reconstructing the history of mankind.

• What is reflected in the philosophy of history, is the nature of historical events in relation to its causality in human society. Thus, historians with different theories of human society would write different historical accounts. For example:

– For Christian historians, God is the mover of history, that is, any event taking place in human society is planed/predetermined by God.

• Continuation…..

– Jean Jacque Rousseau, a French theoretician, believes that, human beings are good in nature, they are born good, they are only corrupted by the society (environment) around. In his historical accounts, he blames the society for corrupting man.

– For the Marxist historians, history is a product of conflict within the society, class struggle between the strong and the weak, the “have” and the “have nots”. Thus, his historical accounts are featured by class struggle in the society.

• Philosophy and historical reconstruction (writing)

In the process of writing history, historians are guided by philosophical questions and assumptions. These questions and assumption have their origin from the various branches of philosophy.

Thus, there are four major philosophical assumptions that guides a historian when producing the history of mankind:

– Axiological or ethical assumptions:

Axiological assumptions centers on issues related to values / morals of a particular society. When reconstructing the history of mankind, historians have to refer to these questions:

üWhat is good in a given society?

üWhat is wrong in a given society?

üWhat are the appropriate and non appropriate behavior in given society?

üWhat is beauty?, is beauty universal or subjective? How a given society perceive beauty?

• Metaphysical or ontological assumptions

These assumptions tries to inquire into issues that are beyond human reasoning (intelligibility). In historical context, they help to inquire whether, there are historical events whose historical explanations goes beyond human reasoning or intelligibility.

• The main philosophical questions which are still important to the study of history are:

Ø What is the nature of the society?

Since man is a social being, then, the study and understanding of the society is of great importance. Metaphysical questions which comes out of this assumption are:

üWhat is the origin and nature of human society?

üIs the society class less or class based?

üIf it is a class based society, how such classes developed?

üIs the society static or dynamic?



• Continuation…….

Ø What is the nature of change?

Historians are not only interested to understand the past historical events, but also to understand how and why such events occurred in human society. Some of the basic questions to a historian are:

üAre historical changes progressive or retrogressive?

üWho initiate changes in human society? (heroes, heroines, or great men)

üFor what purpose are the change for?

üWhat are the effects of change to humankind?

üWhat are the laws behind the transformation of human societies?

Through these assumptions, historians seek to understand how and why events took place in human society.

• Continuation……

Ø What is the nature of historical events?

One of the important tasks of philosophers of history today, is to discover some overall pattern (trend or direction) in the history of mankind. That is , whether, history does proceeds in a certain direction, that is continuity versus separation.

For example, does history follow a clear pattern such as linear, cyclic, spiral, formless, or chaotic?

Ø What is the relationship between man and the environment? What is the role of man as a custodian of the environment? If man is a custodian of the environment, why is he destroying the environment?



• Epistemological assumptions

• This philosophical assumption help historians to address issues related to methodologies and validation of historical knowledge. The common questions are for example:

ü On what ground can historians reasonably demonstrate that they know what they claim? ( what kind of evidence historians use to build their arguments and reconstruct historical knowledge?)

ü To what extent the truth of a historian is true (objective) ? (how do historians validate historical knowledge? How do historians verify historical knowledge?). It is under this ground that historians need to verify the kind of knowledge they produce.

• The following are epistemological issues in studying and writing of history:

• Continuation……..

Ø Objectivity versus subjectivity

Is the writing of history purely objective (true)? Can historians reproduce a purely true (objective) knowledge like the knowledge produced by natural scientists? ( e.g. water boils at 100 degree centigrade). If historical knowledge is objective, where do we place the opinions/views/imagination/ feelings (subjectivity) of the historian?. Generally, historians uses scientificity of history (?) to arrive at objective knowledge.

üThe fact is that man makes history every day (politicians, soldiers , scientists, etc,). It is therefore the task of historians to select events in order to produce objective knowledge.

üHowever, not all events are historical. Historical events are those events with historical significance to mankind and the society around, and can be recorded. If your boy / girl friend visit your room, then, that is not a historical event (why?)



• Continuation……

Ø The sources of history

How historians reconstruct the history of mankind? Should it be reconstructed by using written source only or direct observation or oral sources or both? Why then colonial historians claimed that Africa had no history before it came into contact with foreigners (Europeans) ? Is it because Africa lacked written sources?.

The important issue here is that, historians should make use of all sources available that can help to reconstruct historical knowledge in an objective manner.

Ø Historical facts

What are historical facts? Are all events historical facts? Do the facts speak by themselves? Who is responsible for producing history? What kind of history should be produced? Who determine the production of historical knowledge?

• Continuation…….

Ø Periodization

Is it possible for historians present exact date of historical events? Evidences shows that most historians vary, only approximation is applied



TOPIC 3. ANCIENT PHILOSOPHIES AND HISTORIOGRAPHY

Introduction :

This topic focuses on two major areas:

– To historicize the development(evolution)of historiography in the world( the history of historical writing). That is how the writing of history developed or evolved in different parts of the world.

However, the development or evolution of African historiography will be treated separately in the later topic because of its particular importance in the development and generation of knowledge related to African history.



• Continuation…

– To analyze the various forms of ancient philosophical ideas in different parts of the world with reference to such areas like Greece, Rome, China and the Arab (Muslim) world. But an important question remain to be, why ancient African philosophical ideas are no where to be reflected in the academic world?

Historiography

Defining historiography

– The body of historical literature or the writing of history

– Written records of what is known of past human lives and societies and how historians have attempted to understand such records.

– From these two definitions, then, it can be said that, historiography is the study of writing of history and how historians comes to understand written records.



• Continuation….

– Generally, it is the study of historical writing. The most guiding questions are:

• How historians have been producing or reconstructing historical knowledge?

• What approaches and methodologies historians use to generate historical knowledge?

• What kind of evidences historians uses to produce historical knowledge?

– Generally, it deals with how history has been written and is being written.

• Historiographical genres

Historiographical genres refers to the various ways or styles historians use to present or write historical accounts/information or narration. There are four major types of historiographical genres, these are : autobiography, biography, monographs and book review.

Ø Autobiography:

This refers to historical accounts written by an actor or participant in a given historical event/events. The autobiographer (writer) writes History as a maker of history(?), or as the inside informant (informer with first hand information). The autobiographer is therefore a primary source(?) of an individual’s activities.

üThe autobiographer becomes a hero or heroin (main character) in a given historical accounts. He claims objectivity (providing true accounts), though some times there may be exaggerations in his/her historical accounts because of human nature.

• Continuation……….

Ø Biography

This refers to historical accounts written by someone about an individual’s role or position in a given historical event or events.

üA biography is a work of creative imagination (why?) in which the writer recreates (reconstruct) the life and activities of a hero or heroine. It is therefore, a good secondary source for the production of historical knowledge.

Ø Monograph

It is a historical work or account produced by specialists in a given specific area or topic. It is a detailed analysis of one human problem of knowledge (missing knowledge). The methodology is rigorous. Doctoral thesis, master’s thesis, articles, published papers on specific topic are good example.

• Continuation……

Ø Book review

This refer to the written comments that a historian make on a given published work (historical one) for example a book, thesis, or paper. The aim is to identify the weaknesses and strengths of a document. In short it is a scholarly analysis of a historical document to identify its weaknesses and strengths.

v Uses of book review

üIt helps the readers to know the arrival of the most recent books in his or her area of specialization through the comments made by reviewers

üIt inform the readers of the content and therefore, arouse a positive attitude towards the book

üIt help the reader to interpret the book through the comments made by reviewers.

• Continuation…..

ü it helps a reader to situate/locate a book in a given historiographical school ( to what kind of a historiographical school does the book belong?), for example, colonial, nationalist, underdevelopment, Marxist, etc.

ü It helps readers or researchers to approximate the objectivity of the book. To what extent the book reflect authenticity or truth of the knowledge it presents?

ü It help to locate the environment of scholarship ( the society from which the scholar and the knowledge emerges). The writer does not work on an island, he or she works in the society, which actually influences the knowledge he or she produces. Human knowledge is sociological (influenced by the society around). For example: why Marx wrote a lot about class struggle?, why Rodney wrote about African underdevelopment? Why Nkrumah wrote about Neo-colonialism?

• Continuation…..

History of writing history (evolution of historiography)



Every society of man kind needs to know about its past (history is a universal thirst). This have necessitated the production of historical knowledge so as to inform the present generation about its past history.

The earliest writers of history were the people from Egypt and Mesopotamia (land between rivers : areas between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers covering some parts of modern day Iraq, Syria, Turkey, Iran and Kuwait), though no historical writers in these civilization were known by name.

These unknown historians founded the earliest way of historical writing, chronology ( science of arranging historical events in their order of occurrence in their respective time, such as the use of a timeline or sequence of events).



•



ANCIENT CHINESE HISTORIOGRAHPIES AND PHILOSOPHIES

A: HISTORIOGRAPHIES



• In china, the classic histories is one of the earliest historical document. It is the book of documents made up of a compilation of speeches of great men and records of events in ancient china. It is believed that the document was compiled by the great Chinese philosopher, Confucius (551-479 BC)

• Other ancient historical text in china includes :

– The spring and autumn anal, this is a historical document explaining about the ancient state of Lu, covering the period between 722-481 BC. It was written in a form of anal ( a chronological recording of events, year by year)





• Continuation….



– Record of the Grand historian ( the Chinese Shiji). This document was written by Sima Qian and his father (109-91 BC). It covers important information about Chinese history back to 2600BC. It contains biographies of prominent rulers, timeline of events, economy, biographies of feudal houses and prominent persons, etc.



– The twenty four histories consisting of official compilation of the histories of legitimate dynasties that appeared in Chinese history.

– The Shitong written between 708 and 710 AD. This was compiled by Liu Zhiji, it described general pattern of the official dynastic histories with regard to structure, method of administration, and arrangement of such dynasties

• B : ANCIENT CHINESE PHILOSOPHIES



• Chinese philosophies dates back to around 771-476BC. It developed in the alluvial plains(?) of the yellow (Yangtze) river, the Shadong peninsula and the river valleys of the Huai and Han (probably because of the calm environment of the areas which allowed deep meditation: to think deeply and seriously).

• Generally, these areas are said to be the cradle of Chinese civilization( religion, history, towns, philosophy, writings, architecture, agriculture, political institutions, etc)

• The period (771-476BC) is also referred to as the Hundred school of thought because:

– It was a period of greater intellectual (academic) and cultural expansion in China, where greater range of ideas and thoughts were developed and discussed freely.

• The ideas that developed during this period have greatly influenced political, social, academic and cultural life ways of not only Chinese society, but the whole of East Asian countries to date.



• The intellectual ( academic) society of this area was featured by itinerant scholars ( mobile academicians, academicians who moved from place to place delivering knowledge). These were often employed by state rulers (statesmen) as advisors on methods of administration, wars, and diplomacy (negotiations between nations).

• It was during this period that major Chinese philosophies developed. Good examples of such philosophies includes:

– Confucianism a philosophy that centered on political and ethical issues.

– Mohism a philosophy that emphasized on love and care.

– Taoism/ Daoism a philosophical and religious tradition that emphasized people to live in harmony with Chinese gods.

– Legalism a philosophy that emphasized strict obedience to the legal system.

• QUESTION: What is common in Chinese philosophies?

• In the course of this discussion, we shall use Confucianism as a case study to represent other Chinese philosophies. This is because of the great impacts that Confucius’s teachings had on the Chinese society to date.



CONFUCIANISM

• Confucianism represents collected teachings of the Great Chinese sage (very wise person, with a lot of experiences) Confucius (551-479BC). His philosophical teachings centered on the field of ethics and politics, emphasizing on:

– personal and government morality,

– correctness of social relationships,

– justice,

– traditionalism and

– sincerity.



• He argued that, human beings are teachable, improvable, and perfectible through personal and communal efforts especially through self cultivation (development) and self creation.

• Thus, the central concern of Confucianism was to cultivate / develop virtue ( good behavior) in human person.



Major teachings of Confucius

• The major teachings and ideas of Confucius has been compiled in a book known as the analects / Lunyu of Confucius. Some of the major teachings are:

Ø Humanness:

Humanism is a body of philosophical and ethical knowledge that emphasizes the value of human beings individually and collectively, including living in honest, kindness and forgiveness. It emphasizes on the cultivation of virtue and maintenance of ethics.

Humanness as suggested by Confucius covers three(3) important elements:

ü Ren: an obligation to show concern to other individuals in the community.

ü Yi: the ability and willingness to support virtues in a community. Be ready to defend and support good behavior in the community

ü Li: a system of norms and ability to differentiate what is good and what is bad, and that help to determine how a person should act /behave within a community.

Ø Loyalty:

In this area, Confucius encouraged people to develop loyalty (faithfulness), that is people should be faithful to friends, principles, and to their country.

Ø Fillia piety (respect):

This is one of the most important virtue to be shown by an individual to both the living and the dead/deceased (ancestors: where the living stood as sons to their deceased family). It originally meant respect that a child (son) should show to his parents. However, this respect was further extended to a series of four relationships; ruler and the ruled, husband and wife, elder brother and young brother, friends to friends.

• Continuation….

Ø Relationship

This was central to the teachings of Confucius. According to Confucius, relations are a result of one’s position and duties in a community with regard to others.

– Thus, an individual may have several different relationships with different people in the community, as a junior (child, student) in relation to senior (parents, teachers and other elders) and as a senior in relation to juniors

üIn Confucianism, juniors are expected to give their seniors great respect, seniors also have the duties of being kind, helpful, generous and showing concern towards juniors. Therefore, social harmony (peace) is brought when individuals knows their position in the society.

Ø The Gentleman

Confucianism tried hard to convince people to struggle to achieve the idea of gentleman (perfect man). According to Confucius, a gentleman or perfect man is the one who combines three qualities:

– Being a saint (living holly life),

– Being a scholar ( possessing knowledge) and a

– Being polite with good manner

üA Gentleman was expected to act as a moral guide to the rest of the society. These (Gentlemen) were to cultivate (develop) themselves morally, show fillia piety, loyalty, and humanity or benevolent ( kind, helpful and generous)

üConfucius himself was an example per excellence of a gentleman.

• Continuation….

Ø Rectification of names

According to Confucius, social disorders (problems) often results from failure to perceive, understand and deal with reality.

• Fundamentally, social disorder originates from the failure to call things (individuals) by their proper names and the solution to this problem of social disorder was “zhengming”, that is, rectification of names (naming things / individuals accordingly)

ü Respect should be given to social names since they are attached with responsibilities and duties. For example, the ruler, minister, father, son, wife, husband, etc. these tittles / names determines ones responsibilities and duties in the society. Hence there is a need to fulfill duties and responsibilities according to the names.

• Continuation…..

Ø Governance

Regarding governance, Confucius argues that, in order for a person to govern others effectively, one must govern himself (a ruler need to serve as a good example to others). King’s personal virtue (good character) have a great influence through out the kingdom (how?).

ü This idea is related to the Taoist concept of Wu Wei : the less the King does, the more gets done. By being a “calm center (the king with good morals)” around through which the kingdom operates, the King allows everything to function smoothly and avoid having collision with individuals around.

ü Leader who has good character may act as a good example for the ruled and other officials in his kingdom, in this way, the kingdom will operate smoothly.



Significance of Confucianism

Confucius is regarded as a moral philosopher and teacher who taught honesty and love to his disciples. Love and honesty were the most important qualities that every youth was supposed to have. That is why he emphasized on humanness, loyalty, fillia piety and people to achieve a gentleman status.

– Confucius advised rulers in their right conduct, he taught higher ruling classes how to be behave .

– Confucius offered ethical and political philosophy . Thus, his teachings were made part of the educational system in China.

– Confucius provided principles of running the government and the state of china. For example:

üStratification of the Chinese society: Confucius argued that a state should always be divided into classes. That is the class of aristocracy and the commoners, and one should behave according to his or her class. Such stratification had to be continued and preserved.

• Continuation…..

üHe emphasized on the good conduct of rulers. If a ruler lacked good moral conduct, then, the people were morally justified to remove him from power and replace him with another ruler who was morally good. He therefore justified revolution over rulers with bad conduct. It was in these grounds that Confucius therefore argued that “in order to govern others, one must first govern himself”.

– Confucius and his teachings introduced and emphasized on the system of meritocracy. Meritocracy is a system where by a person should move from one level to the next basing on intellectual qualification and talents mostly determined by demonstrated achievements. There should be no favoritism, one needs qualifications to advance from one stage to the next or to hold certain administrative duties. Therefore:



ANCIENT GRECO-ROMAN HISTORIOGRAPHIES AND PHILOSOPHIES

DEVELOPMENT OF GRECO-ROMAN HISTORIOGRAHIES

A: EVOLUTION OF GREECE HISTORIOGRAPHY

Written Historical evidence suggest that, historiography has its origin from Greece as far as 5th century BC, with prominent historians like Herodotus who was followed by Thucydides.

These were followed by other Greek historians like Xenophon, and Ephros. The time of these scholars was featured by many city states, which were struggling for power. As a result, among other themes, early Greece history focused on the rise and fall of various city states.

Therefore the early history of ancient Greece based on the state formation and political struggles of these city states. The study of history started focusing on human beings and events of the past rather than the action of gods.







• Following the emergence of Historiography in Greece, History gradually, began to live behind the myth (religious explanations basing on gods/Gods/supernatural power) in favor of researches in analyzing historical events.

Generally speaking, the development (evolution) of historical writing in Greece was triggered by several factors:

– Recognition of the need to have a collective knowledge about human past , instead of heroic history of individuals.

– Increased awareness of a world beyond the Greek world, hence a need to know and write about other societies.

– A shift from the philosophers’ concern for the meaning of the cosmos ( the universe) to a desire to understand human problems, hence a need to study the human society, marking the beginning history.



– To preserve the memory of the past so that, the great acts of the Greeks and the Barbarians (?) are not lost.

– To put on a record of what was the causes of the conflict between the Greeks and the Barbarians.

• Thus, the histories written by Herodotus (420-450 BC) was the earliest known historical work in Greek. This work, was a record of Greek traditions, politics, geography and cultural conflicts (why?) between the Greeks and the Barbarians.

• Following the efforts made by Herodotus in laying down the principles and methodologies of historical writing, Herodotus came to be known as the father of history ( Cicero).

• Generally, Greek historians, particularly Herodotus, greatly contributed to the development of historical methodologies ( approaches of historical writing). In their historical writing, Greece historians used the following methodologies (approaches) :



– To ensure objectivity about the past knowledge, they depended greatly on:

• Eye witness i.e. a person present at an event who can describe what happened) and

• Other reliable testimony such as oral testimony (giving a verbal statement on a historical account).

They thus, considered visual and oral evidence to be superior over written sources.

– They made use of apodosis in their historical accounts. Apodosis refers to the use of conditional sentences using the form of if “x” (hypothesis) then “y” (conclusion). This marked the beginning of causal relationship of past events.

– Evaluation of source materials(?). This aimed at identifying the trustworthiness (authenticity) of the source materials. Evaluation of sources involved investigation of the source material and later consulting the authority (rulers, military officials) to cross check the validity of the source.



– The methodological approach did not only involve the collection of information, but also offered analysis and interpretation of the significance of the data collected (what was the essence/relevance of the data collected?).

– Greek approach of historical writing also guarded bias towards one native land. It set some premises to avoid bias in reconstructing one’s society historical knowledge.

– Greek historical writing did not attribute causation of human events to the Greek gods. To them, historical events were a result of various changes (social, political and economic) taking place in the Greek society.

Therefore, Greek historians played a critical role in laying down fundamental historical principles in historical writing and scholarship. Such principles have been adapted and modified by contemporary historians ( historiographers).

During this time, the most important Greece historians were, Herodotus and Thucydides.



HERODOTUS (485-425 BC)

– He was the first Greek writer who succeeded to write a large scale historical accounts.

– His great work, the histories, occupied most of his life time. It was a compilation of several volumes.

– The main idea in the book is the war between the Greeks and the Barbarians.

» He analyzed the causes of the wars and their associated consequences.

» He wanted to inform people of his time and the future generations about the actions of the Greeks, what they did and the consequences of their deeds. He thus, used a very simple language.



Herodotus source

• In compiling his materials for his histories, Herodotus depended mainly on:

– His own eye observation

– Accounts of eye witnesses

– Oral traditions for the earliest events

• Modern historical findings indicates that:

– Herodotus was a remarkably accurate reporter of what he saw himself.

– But when he depended on others for information, he was not always accurate and critical enough in deciding what was reliable and what was not reliable.

• Generally, Herodotus presented his written information in an attractively, simple and easy flowing style, and he had a remarkable gift for telling a story clearly.



Weaknesses associated with Herodotus writing.

– Herodotus was not accurate in narrating military operations since he had no personal experience of warfare, and therefore, could not always access accurate information regarding military operations, especially wars of conquest.

– Sometimes, in his presentation, Herodotus included stories of doubtful reliability because it was all he had, or they were such good stories that he could not resist them

– He did not take enough care over matters of chronology. However, this was difficulty because each city state in Greece had its own way of counting years, and its own calendar of months and days.

– Lack of rigorous (thorough) analysis of causes of events. Herodotus, in most cases attributed events to individuals. But his own writings makes clear that there were wider political, social, or economic factors for the occurrence of events.



THUCYDIDES ( 460-395 BC)

• He was an Athenian from a rich family. He later became a military general who led the Athenians in a battle against Sparta in 400sBC. Having lost the battle, the democratic government forced him to leave Athens.

• Thucydides left Athens and spent the rest of his life in writing a book, A History of the Peloponnesian War. In his book he wrote how the war started and what happened during the war, and finally why the Spartans finally won the war.

• Thucydides work is famous because he made some big advances in historical methods. He is credited as the father of scientific history, because of the strict standards of evidence gathering and analysis in terms of causes and effects without relating to gods.

• In his historical writing:



– He tried to find out the facts from trustworthy sources, especially men who had actually been there when the events happened (he relied on eye witness).

– Much more than Herodotus, he tried to establish that the invasion and final defeat of the Athenians by the Spartans was not because the gods were angry. But he explained this invasion and defeat in terms of other factors such as social, economic, and political grounds

– He was not interested in analyzing the Peloponnesian war only, but he tried to use the events of the war to find out more general things. For example, why civil war occurs, why plagues occurs, and generally, why people act the way they do?

He generally saw history as a matter of politics and warfare, and never reported on women’s history.