Method
The study of history is not just a story based on sources. A scholar is able to explain why he does what he does; awareness of methodological problems is the difference between a professional and a dilettante. Explaining this is of the greatest importance, because there are two disturbing developments.
- An increasing number of people has received a higher education, and is capable of recognizing the errors made by professional scholars, who are increasingly specialized and are often insufficiently aware of developments outside their specialism.
- On internet, people select the information they like - and this is usually bad information, because bad information drives out good.
The first development causes scepticism, while the second allows it to flourish. We must, therefore, explain our methods: philogical, exegetical, archaeological, historical. In this way, people will understand why information offered by professional scholars is better than other kinds of information.
Although it has, since about 2005, been generally recognized that websites like Livius.org and books for a larger audience must not just present the facts but should explain method as well, no satisfying way to explain method has been found so far. However, we can at least try to create awareness that history is a serious discipline. On this page, you will find links to several issues and problems, not all of them methodological.
There are 26 items in Method:
Goropizing
Goropizing: the use of incorrect etymologies.Jan van Gorp van der Beke – or, to use his Latinized name: Johannes Goropius Becanus – was one of those brilliant Late Renaissance scholars: he was not just a physician, he was also interested…Hermeneutics
Hermeneutics is, to quote the founder of the method, Friedrich Schleiermacher (1768-1834), “the art of understanding each other’s words”. However, it is not just a method to understand the spoken or written word, but also a way to explain historical…Lectio difficilior potior
Lectio difficilior potior: principle of textual criticism. Erasmus (Royal Library, The Hague, Netherlands) The Dutch humanist Desiderius Erasmus (1466-1536) was the first…Maccabees and Method
The Maccabaean Revolt is an interesting case study to introduce some aspects of historical method, as can be seen below.Increasing Chaos …Maximalists and Minimalists
Maximalism and Minimalism: labels for two opinions about the relation between written evidence and archaeology, which sometimes are conflicting. The expressions are used when discussing the past of ancient Israel, but similar debates are known in Roman, Greek, and Iranian…Orality
Orality: the way in which information spreads through (predominantly) illiterate societies. The study of oral literature has helped classicists and historians to evaluate the origins of their information.In the early twentieth century, scholars studying the formal characteristics of ancient texts,…Ostracon
Ostracon: an inscribed potsherd. Sahidic ostracon from Thebes We are accustomed to write on paper. The ancients used papyrus or parchment, but…Positivist Fallacy
Positivist Fallacy: the assumption, often implicit, that historical sources and archaeological remains document significant events of the past. The expression was coined by archaeologist Anthony Snodgrass.Like the Everest Fallacy, the Positivist Fallacy can best be introduced with an example. There…Terminus ante/post quem
Terminus ante quem and terminus post quem: two expressions to indicate a relative chronology.Terminus ante quem simply means "moment before which X happened" and terminus post quem means "moment after which X happened". For example, if we know that the…Testis unus testis nullus
Testis unus testis nullus ("one witness is no witness"): name of a problem that is created when historians have only one source - they cannot control the information and are forced to accept it.Historians have a lot in common with…Textual criticism
Textual criticism: the study of medieval manuscripts in order to reconstruct ancient texts. Fifteenth-century Byzantine Gospel manuscript, showing the prologue of…The Significance of Marathon
Battle of Marathon: famous clash between a Persian invasion force and an army of Athenians in 490 BCE. Its signicance is greatly exaggerated. …