The Meaning of “History”

rcsalamat
THE CAIN PROJECT
Greek…

• History - historia, meaning

"inquiry, knowledge acquired
by investigation“
 It may refer to the very act of
inquiring
 It may also refer to the
output of the act of inquiring
Greek…

• History - is a systematic
account of a set of natural
phenomena (wars, eclipses,
games, speeches, etc.)
»Aristotle
Herodotus versus Thucydides
Herodotus

• Father of History

• To compile his history, Herodotus

relied on oral accounts and he
included gossip, myths, and
rumors. Sometimes he would
provide conflicting accounts of
events and invite the reader to decide
which to believe.
Thucydides

• Credited with writing the first

“scientific” history

• Thucydides wrote only about events

that occurred during his lifetime
that he could verify through
examination of written records and
eyewitness accounts. He strived for
complete objectivity, and in this
way he pioneered the historical
method used by historians today.
German…

• History - geschichte, derived

from the German verb,
geschehen meaning “to
happen”
 Geschichte in short is
“that which happened”
Filipino…

• History - kasaysayan,
derived from the
“saysay” which means
that which is relevant
and meaningful.
 History as
Reconstruction

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Introduction

• The historian is many times

removed from the events
under investigation

• Historians rely on surviving

records

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Introduction
• “Only a part of what was
observed in the past was
remembered by those who
observed it; only a part of what
was remembered was
recorded; only a part of what
was recorded has survived;
only a part of what has
survived has come to the
historian’s attention.”
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Introduction

• “Only a part of what is credible

has been grasped, and only
a part of what has been
grasped can be expounded
or narrated by the historian.”

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Introduction
• History can be told only from
history-as-record; and history
as told (spoken or written
history) is only the historian’s
expressed part of the
understood part of the
credible part of the discovered
part of history-as-record.
• History is always incomplete.
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The Historian…
• Credibility
• Biases
• Frame of reference

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Different
Interpretations…
• From a political rival: “I wonder if
he’s good as he is in Malacanang.”
• From LP: “Good for him, he
deserves a break from his everyday
work.”
• From a religious person: “As a role
model for all Filipinos, he shouldn’t
be photographed doing that.”

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Actual caption…

• “Greece’s new Finance

Minister Yanis Varoufakis ®
greets the outgoing finance
minister Gikas Hardouvelis
after a hand-over ceremony
in Athens on January 28,
2015.”

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Elements of history..
• Narrative – facts (objective part of history)
• Explanation – “why did the event
happen?”
• Evaluation – “What lessons can we get
from the historical narrative? It all depends
on what we desire and our predisposition in
life.
• Correlate the event in our present
condition
• History is relevant – “teaches lessons”
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