Abstract
When a historian proceeds to study a selected fragment of the past he has at his disposal, among other things, a specified general knowledge of the process of history and a more detailed knowledge of the problems of the period and the region under investigation. That general knowledge of his, whatever its standard may be and however it helps him in his research, is one of the major elements of what is termed a historian’s non-source-based knowledge. Its structure and functions will be investigated in greater detail in Part Four, when procedures in historical research will be studied.
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References
Cf. W. Kula, Rozwazania o historii (Reflections on History), Warszawa 1958, pp. 61 ff.; K. Budzyk, “Fakt historyczny, prawa rządzące historią”(Historical Facts, Laws Governing History), Przeglqd Humanistyczny, No. 5/1958; J. Dutkiewicz, “Fakt historyczny”(Historical Facts), Sprawozdania Lodzkiego Towarzystwa Naukowego, vol. XIV, No. 5/1959, pp. 1-6; G. Labuda, “O meto-dyce ksztalcenia mlodych historyków”(The Methods of Training Young Historians), Kwartalnik Historyczny, No. 3/1960, p. 766; C. Bobinska, Historyk. Fakt. Metoda (The Historian. The Fact, The Method), Warszawa 1964, pp. 21 ff.
Criticism in this sense has been advanced by C. Bobinska, op. cit., pp. 21 ff.
S. Czarnowski, “Definicje i klasyfikacja faktów spolecznych”(Definitions and Classifications of Social Facts), Dziela (Collected Works), vol. II, Warszawa 1956, p. 227.
J. N. Watkins, “Historical Explanation in the Social Science”, in: Theories of History, ed. cit., p. 505.
O. Lange, Wholes and Parts, Oxford-Warszawa 1965, in particular pp. 1, 2, 17, 27, 29-32. The analysis given here is based on that work.
W. Ross Ashby, An Introduction to Cybernetics, London 1958, p. 62. Concerning social system see also F. Znaniecki, Wstęp do socjologii (Introduction to Sociology), Poznan 1922, pp. 346 ff.
O. Lange, op. cit., p. 4.
Cf. Z. Augustynek, “Czas i przestrzeń a materia”(Time and Space Versus Matter) in: Jedność materialna świata (The Material Unity of the World), Warszawa 1961, pp. 205–54.
Cf. I. Szumilewicz, O kierunkfu uplywu czasu (The Direction of Time Flow), Warszawa 1964. See also Z. Zawirski, “Rozwój pojęcia czasu”(The Evolution of the Concept of Time), Kwartalnik Filozoficzny, vol. 12, 1936, and H. Reichenbach, Philosophie der Raum-Zeit-Lehre, Berlin-Leipzig 1928, and, by the same author, The Direction of Time, Berkeley 1956. The last-named book marks the greatest achievement of present-day philosophy on the issue of time.
A distinction is to be made between the various meanings of the term time. K. Ajdukiewicz singles out four such meanings: (a) time as a moment, a point event; (b) period of time (e.g., the period of the rule of Charlemagne); (c) duration, i.e., the length of a period of time (different periods of time can have the same duration); (d) the all-embracing period of time, the limitless time axis. All these concepts can be found in historical narratives.
This point has been stressed in particular by cultural anthropologists.
Cf. J. Le Goff, “Temps de l’église et temps du marchand”, Annales E.S.C., No. 3/1960. See also G. Beaujouan, “Le temps historique”, in: L’Histoire et ses méthodes, Paris 1963, pp. 52-67, where he stresses the non-homogeneity of historical time.
W. Kula, Problemy i metody historii gospodarczej (Problems and Methods in Economic History), Warszawa 1963, p. 61.
Cf. I. Szumilewicz, op. cit. (footnote 9 above), p. 9.
Ibid., pp. 101 ff.
This difficulty has been pointed to by W. Kula in his Rozwazania o historii (Reflections on History), ed. cit., p. 64.
The present writer discussed that issue in greater detail in Historia Gospo-darcza Polski (Poland’s Economic History), 8th Congress of Polish Historians, Warszawa 1960, pp. 73-5.
A similar classification is to be found in A. Cordolani, “Comput, Chronologie, Calendrier”, in: L’Histoire et ses méthodes, ed. cit., pp. 37-52.
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Topolski, J. (1976). Historical Facts. In: Methodology of History. Synthese Library, vol 88. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-010-1123-5_12
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