Chapter 1: Lesson 1: The Meaning of
History
History
• Is derived from the Greek word
historia means learning by
inquiry.
• Referred usually for accounts of
phenomena, especially human
affairs in chronological order.
Aristotle
• Looked upon history as the
systematic accounting of a set
of natural phenomena, that is
taking into consideration the
chronological arrangement of
the account.
• Explained that knowledge is
derived through conducting a
process of scientific
investigation of past events.
Theories constructed by historians in
investigating history:
Factual History
• Presents the readers the plain
and basic information.
• What: the events that took place
• When: time and date with which
the event happened.
• Who: The people that were
involved.
Speculative History
• It is concerned about the
reasons for which events
happened (why), and how they
happened (how)
Historians
• Individuals who write about
history.
• They seek to understand the
present by examining what went
before.
Historiography
• The practice of historical writing.
• The traditional method in doing
historical research focuses on
gathering documents from
different libraries and archives to
form a pool of evidence needed
in making a descriptive or
analytical narrative.
Modern Historical Writing
• Also use the research methods
from related areas of study such
as archeology and geography.
Limitations of Historical Knowledge
• Incomplete records have limited
man’s knowledge of history.
History as Actuality
• The whole history of the past can
be known to a historian only
through the surviving records.
History as Record
• Only a tiny part of the whole
phenomenon.
History as The subjective Process of
Re-creation
• Historians strive to restore the
total past of mankind.
History for the Historians
• History only becomes a part of
the human past which can be
meaningfully reconstructed for
the available records and from
inferences regarding their setting.
