Abogadie, Mc Bryan

AAMT1-5

1. Historical Knowledge

Historical knowledge exists in all human societies. It is the cognitive

appropriation of socially-determined material transformations necessary for life process.
We must begin with this fact. It is a form of social consciousness, a socially-determined
interpretation of the movement of those transformations. But where do we find it and
how do we recognize it? Where is the place of historical knowledge? Where and how
does it exist? On the printed page, in books, of course, and prior to printing and writing,
in oral traditions (all those forms of a human community's collective memory--some
names of people or places; songs, stories, poems, legends, tales, cosmogonic myths;
drawings, carvings, cave inscriptions, tablets, bone/bamboo inscriptions; languages; old
roads; etc.). Historical knowledge exists nowadays as well on tapes, cassettes, computer
memory, films, pictures, etc.

2. History at the Subjective Process of Re-creation

As time goes on things change – people change, cities change, nations change. As
these changes occur history happens. History plays a significant role in our present daily
lives. From history we gain understanding and enable ourselves to make significant
progress towards an overall betterment. While history holds great importance, it is also
extremely flawed. The major flaw history has is that it changes as time goes on, just like
everything else does. It is not so much that actual historical events change but more so
that the way said historical events are perceived that changes. Once an event occurs no
person can go back and physically change what happened. Shifts in ideals and standards
lead to shifts in the way a society as a whole views a topic. This shift alters society’s
views on history. Because “change is constant,” we are always evolving, and with
evolving standards, history also evolves (Disraeli). The evolution of standards and ideals
within a society can be brought on by many things. There are a countless number of
factors which can be said to attribute to changes but the most dominant, in regards to
change’s effect on history, are newly derived social norms and human’s perception of
themselves. These two factors both give explanation as to how constantly evolving
standards affect and alter our view on history.

3. Define Historical Method and Historiography

Historical method comprises the techniques and guidelines by which historians
use primary sources and other evidence, including the evidence of archaeology, to
research and then to write histories in the form of accounts of the past. The question of
the nature, and even the possibility, of a sound historical method is raised in the
philosophy of history as a question of epistemology. The study of historical method and
 of different ways of writing history is known as historiography. It is the study how
different historical interpretations develop and change over time.

4. Sources (Primary and Original)

In the study of history as an academic discipline, a primary source (also called an original
source or evidence) is an artifact, document, diary, manuscript, autobiography, recording, or
any other source of information that was created at the time under study. It serves as an
original source of information about the topic. Similar definitions can be used in library
science, and other areas of scholarship, although different fields have somewhat different
definitions. In journalism, a primary source can be a person with direct knowledge of a
situation, or a document written by such a person.
Historical Knowledge Limited by Incompleteness of the Records