THEORETICAL VIEW ON HISTORY

Abstract

The paper analyzes the socio-theoretical perspectives on historical science and its’ place in the corpus of social sciences and humanities. Although it is often thought that only Marxists’ view towards history has given greater theoretical basis and widely introduced social history into the ‘classical history’, some modern scholars, especially the AngloAmerican historiographers and philosophers of history provide somewhat different views. On the other hand, however, there are strong voices and arguments stating that the excessive abstraction of historical science leads inevitably to the impossibility of fitting the historical facts (understood in the broadest sense) in the theory. In addition to this belief, there is widespread credence that even a subject of historical science could twist into the pure theory. There are also still those historians of all periods who remain just mere compilers and reproducers of facts found in the sources and older literature. Authors of the paper, therefore, attempt to demonstrate that the socio-theoretical views and theories themselves and its ‘symbiosis with the basis of historical science is possible, without history losing its specificity as a science and its’ distinctiveness in relation to other theoretical and social sciences. Applying the theory on the different historical researches of all periods and aspects of historical science should be done without changing some of the key patterns of the historical study. In that context, the historian must not recede from the critical and thorough analyze of sources as well as literature. Therefore, any contemporary effort or scientific statement those historians ‘choose facts’ which will be then compiled into papers and works is to be rejected as ahistorical. Theory applying ought to be a step forward in studying different aspects of history. its’ crucial significance is helping historians to deliver a wider perspective of reading past and showing more broader overview of all aspects of human life, deed and behavior from the Ancient times up to contemporary periods. Neither should history be simply abstracted and turned into plain theory, nor should historians’ researches remain attached only to the artless, unassuming numbering of facts without any deeper attempts of understanding the past.