LEON GOLDSTEIN AND THE EPISTEMOLOGY OF HISTORICAL KNOWING

Author: O'SULLIVAN, LUKE

Source: History and Theory, Volume 45, Number 2, May 2006 , pp. 204-228(25)

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Abstract:

Leon Goldstein's critical philosophy of history has suffered a relative lack of attention, but it is the outcome of an unusual story. He reached conclusions about the autonomy of the discipline of history similar to those of R. G. Collingwood and Michael Oakeshott, but he did so from within the Anglo-American analytic style of philosophy that had little tradition of discussing such matters. Initially, Goldstein attempted to apply a positivistic epistemology derived from Hempel's philosophy of natural science to historical knowledge, but gradually (and partly thanks to his interest in Collingwood) formulated an anti-realistic epistemology that firmly distinguished historical knowledge of the past not only from the scientific perspective but also from fictional and common-sense attitudes to the past. Among his achievements were theories of the distinctive nature of historical evidence and historical propositions, of the constructed character of historical events, and of the relationship between historical research and contemporary culture. Taken together, his ideas merit inclusion among the most important twentieth-century contributions to the problem of historical knowledge.

Document Type: Research article

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2303.2006.00357.x

Affiliations: 1: London

Publication date: 2006-05-01