The Methodology of History

One Methodology and History.- I. The Subject Matter of the Methodology of Sciences.- 1. The main branches and aspects of the methodology of sciences.- 2. The methodology of sciences and semiotics.- 3. The methodology of sciences and the history of science.- 4. The methodology of sciences and the theory of games and of decision-making.- 5. The methodology of sciences and information theory.- 6. The methodology of sciences and epistemology.- 7. The methodology of sciences and ontological and psychological investigations.- 8. Conclusions for use in specialized methodologies.- II. The Subject Matter of the Methodology of History.- 1. Branches of the methodology of history.- 2. The pragmatic methodology of history.- 3. The apragmatic methodology of history.- 4. The objective methodology of history.- 5. The general methodology of history versus the methodologies of the various historical disciplines.- 6. The general methodology of history in relation to heuristics and source criticism. The place of the auxiliary historical disciplines.- III. The Scope of the Subject Matter (Domain) of Historical Research.- 1. Preliminary remarks.- 2. The etymology and the semantic evolution of the term history.- 3. General definitions of the subject matter of history (as a science).- 4. History as res gestae and history as historia rerum gestarum.- Two Patterns of Historical Research.- Grounds for Classification.- IV. Pragmatic Reflection.- 1. Antiquity.- 2. The Middle Ages.- V. Critical Reflection.- 1. The development of the critical pattern of research and early eruditionism.- 2. The philosophical variant of the critical pattern of historical research. Further development of instruments of historical (criticism in the 18th century.- VI. Erudite and Genetic Reflection.- 1. The grounds for singling out this pattern of reflection. The third phase of historical narration.- 2. Methodological reflection under Romanticism.- 3. The peculiarities of positivist reflections on history.- VII. Structural Reflection.- 1. The rise of a structural pattern of historical research.- 2. Philosophical inspirations of anti-positivist history.- 3. The anti-positivist philosophy of history.- 4. The characteristics of structural reflection in historical research.- 5. H. Berr and the Annales school. Other trends in France.- 6. Methodological reflection in Britain and in America.- 7. Methodological trends in German historiography.- 8. Structural historiography in other countries. Concluding remarks.- VIII. Logical Reflection.- 1. The rise of the logical reflection on science.- 2. The problem of the logical-positivist demarcation of science and metaphysics.- 3. Methodological issues in analytic philosophy.- 4. Misunderstandings over the struggle of analytic philosophy against metaphysics in history. K. Popper and I. Berlin.- 5. Trends in the logical analysis of history.- IX. Dialectical Reflection.- 1. A review of the earlier types of reflection on history.- 2. The rise of dialectical reflection on history.- 3. The novel ontological and epistemological elements in materialistic dialectic.- 4. The rise of historical materialism.- Three the Objective Methodology of History.- X. Historical Facts.- 1. Preliminary remarks.- 2. The controversy over the concept of historical fact.- 3. The main characteristics of the dialectical interpretation of historical fact. A fact as a system.- 4. Spatio-temporal determinants of historical facts.- XI. The Process of History (Causality and Determinism).- 1. The principle of causality as the basis of the statement on the regularity of historical facts.- 2. Determinism and indeterminism in history.- 3. Regularity and chance in history.- 4. The problem of an individual's free will.- 5. The role of prominent individuals in history.- 6. Fatalism and teleologism. The problem of determinism in the explanation of past events.- XII. The Process of History (Historical Regularities).- 1. The concept of historical regularities and their tentative classification.- 2. Historical regularities and principal causes.- 3. Synchronic regularities.- 4. Diachronie regularities.- 5. The regularities of historical development (synchronic-dia-chronic regularities).- 6. Stages in the process of history (social formations).- Four the Pragmatic Methodology of History. Theory of Source-Based and Non-Source-Based Knowledge.- XIII. The Nature of Historical Cognition.- 1. General description of the process of cognition.- 2. Characteristics of scientific cognition.- 3. The controversy over the nature of historical cognition.- 4. Arguments against scepticism. The characteristic traits of historical cognition.- 5. Epistemological relativism and the problem of objectivity in historical cognition.- 6. Truth in history.- 7. The concept of probability in historical research.- XIV. Questions and Answers. a General Reconstruction of Historical Research.- 1. The problem of decisions.- 2. Basic concepts in the theory of historical questions and answers.- 3. The concept of hypothesis in historical research.- 4. The structure of historical theories and methodological models.- 5. Schemata of hypothetical procedure in historical research.- XV. Theory of Source-Based Knowledge.- 1. The general concept of historical source.- 2. Earlier classifications of historical sources.- 3. A tentative solution of the problem of the classification of sources.- 4. The reading of source information (decoding).- 5. The concept of source-based knowledge and source-based data.- XVI. Theory of Non-Source-Based Knowledge.- 1. A tentative explanation of the concept of non-source-based knowledge.- 2. The structure of non-source-based knowledge. Non-source-based data.- 3. The origin of non-source-based knowledge.- 4. Current knowledge and common sense.- 5. Non-source-based scientific knowledge.- 6. Theoretical issues of the integration of science.- XVII. The Functions of Source-Based and Non-Source-Based Knowledge.- 1. An analysis of the historian's procedure from the point of view of the role of source-based and non-source-based knowledge.- 2. The functions of non-source-based knowledge!. The problem of the nominal model of questions.- 3. The functions of non-source-based knowledge2. The problem, of methodological model (selection).- 4. The functions of non-source-based data.- Five the Pragmatic Methodology of History: the Methods of Reconstruction of the Process of History.- XVIII. The Authenticity of Sources and the Reliability of Informants.- 1. The general concept of source criticism.- 2. The authenticity of sources.- 3. The rules of the examination of authenticity (external criticism).- 4. The concept of reliability ..- 5. The study of reliability (internal criticism).- 6. Problems of authorship of sources.- XIX. Methods of Establishing Historical Facts.- 1. A general reconstruction of the procedure of establishing facts.- 2. Induction and deduction in research.- 3. Induction and deduction in historical research.- 4. The direct and the indirect method of establishing facts . ..- 5. The philological (lexical) method.- 6. The geographical method.- 7. The genealogical method.- 8. The comparative method (in its territorial version).- 9. The retrogressive method (the chronological version of the comparative method).- 10. Inference from the lack of data (argumentum ex silentio).- XX. Quantitative Methods in Historical Research.- 1. An outline of the development of quantitative analyses in historical research.- 2. The concept and the objectives of historical statistics.- 3. Statistical grouping of data.- 4. Calculations by estimation and calculations based directly on sources.- 5. Exhaustive calculations versus representative samples. The chi-square test.- 6. The numerical analysis of structures.- 7. A numerical analysis of changes.- 8. Correlation analysis.- 9. Computer applications in historical research.- 10. Quantitative analyses of texts.- 11. Prospects for applications of mathematics in historical research.- XXI. The Procedure of Explanation in Historical Research.- 1. The various interpretations of historical explanation.- 2. Understanding and explanation.- 3. Types of causal explanation in historical research.- 4. Explanation of goal-oriented human actions (humanistic interpretation).- 5. Explanation by reference to dispositions.- 6. The general procedure of causal explanation. Hempel's model.- 7. Explanation by indication of conditions which are both sufficient and necessary.- 8. Explanation by indication of sufficient conditions.- 9. Explanation by pointing to necessary conditions.- 10. Explanation by reference to conditions necessary in a given situation.- 11. Explanation by reference to favourable conditions.- 12. Search for disturbing factors.- 13. Explanation by reference to more direct and less direct causes.- 14. Genetic explanation and genetic description.- XXII. Construction and Synthesis.- 1. Basic and derivative research questions.- 2. Simple and synthetic constructions.- 3. The problem of synthesis in historical research.- 4. Periodization in history.- 5. Territorial and factual scope and classification of research types.- Six the Apragmatic Methodology of History.- XXIII. The Nature and Instruments of Historical Narration.- 1. The problem of narration in the methodology of sciences.- 2. Historical narratives versus narratives in general.- 3. Types of scientific historical narratives. Chronicle writing versus historiography.- 4. Historical imagination.- 5. The language of narratives.- 6. Classifying and ordering concepts.- 7. The role of counterfactual inference.- XXIV. Components of Narratives: Historical Statements and Laws.- 1. Categories of historical statements.- 2. Spatio-temporal determinants.- 3. The controversy over historical generalizations.- 4. Types of historical generalizations.- 5. The controversy over the laws of science.- 6. Laws in historical narratives.- 7. The concept of regularities in some historical studies.- XXV. Elements of Historical Narratives: Evaluations.- 1. Valuation versus evaluations. The logical value of evaluations.- 2. The various forms of the valuating attitude of historians.- 3. The kinds of evaluations in historical narratives.- 4. The criterion of progress as the main element of proper evaluations in historiography.- 5. Historians in face of evaluations.- XXVI. The Methodological Structure of Historical Research.- 1. Criteria of classification of sciences.- 2. The anti-naturalist and the naturalist view of the social sciences.- 3. Subject-oriented and pragmatic idiographism.- 4. History versus sociology. The need for the development of social history.- 5. The tasks of history.- Index of Names.