Paul Feyerabend’s essay “Against method” (1975) is rarely mentioned when scientists try to contextualise and justify their research projects. Or at…
Tag Archive for ‘Theory (Theorie)’
Against Empathy in History?
Empathy is undoubtedly a good thing, right? Barack Obama certainly thought so. He declared before and during his presidency that America’s federal deficit was less of a problem than its…
“History Types” and Public History
History is made. Public history must therefore deal with the product-oriented practices of historiography. A cornerstone of a research-oriented public history could be the introduction of “history types” as an analytical concept.
The Practical Legacy of Hayden White
Two months ago the controversial and highly influential historical theorist Hayden White passed away. While his work has principally been debated in historical theory circles, his final work suggests ‘practical’ possibilities for public history
Relativity, Historicity and Historical Studies
Paradoxically, relativity or relativism is often presented in an absolutist manner, as the proposition that nothing is true, and as a credo in which all is to be doubted apart from doubt itself….
The Didactics of the History of Time
Leaps, travels, concepts, histories, and layers of time – the so-called Temporal Turn reminds us, at least, of the non-naturality of our everyday time practices. Which consequences result from that for history teaching and our research questions?
Value Neutrality? Repression of a Crucial Question
For Western historiography and with it the descriptive parts of history textbooks have to be sine ira et studio nowadays. Value neutrality is a necessary prerequisite for history as a science.
In Search of Narrative Plausibility
How shall we articulate a concept of plausibility of historical narratives as a way to assess their adequacy? Jörn Rüsen offers a starting point with his definition of ‘Triftigkeit’.