How do we know what happened in the past? We cannot go back, and
no amount of historical data can enable us to understand with
absolute certainty what life was like athen.a It is easy to
demolish the very idea of historical knowing, but it is impossible
to demolish the importance of historical knowing. In an age of
cable television pundits and anonymous bloggers dueling over
history, the value of owning history increases at the same time as
our confidence in history as a way of knowing crumbles. Historical
knowledge thus presents a paradox -- the more it is required, the
less reliable it has become. To reconcile this paradox -- that
history is impossible but necessary -- Peter Charles Hoffer
proposes a practical, workable philosophy of history for our times,
one that is robust and realistic, and that speaks to anyone who
reads, writes and teaches history.
The philosophy of history that Hoffer supports in The
Historians' Paradox is driven by a continual and careful search for
the authentic, but without confining the real to a finite or closed
set of facts. Hoffer urges us to think and live with a keen
awareness that history is everywhere, to accept the impossibility
of measuring its reliability, but to never approach it
unquestioningly. Covering a sweeping range of philosophies (from
ancient history to game theory), methodological approaches to
writing history, and the advantages and disadvantages of different
strategies of argument, Hoffer constructs a philosophy of history
that is reasonable, free of fallacy, and supported by appropriate
evidence that is itself tenable.
The Historians' Paradox brings together accounts of actual
historical events, anecdotes about historians, insights from
philosophers of history, and the personal experience of a long time
scholar and teacher. Throughout, Hoffer liberally spices the
mixture with humor to create a philosophy of history for our
times.
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