4 SCHOOLS OF HISTORICAL INTERPRETATION AND THEIR CHARACTERISTICS - HISTORY - 2025

The schools of historical interpretation are those that are dedicated to the understanding, reconstruction and explanation of the historical events that have affected man at a given time.

These schools have different approaches and ways of seeing history. They use different methods (generally social) for the interpretation and understanding of world history. What each of them have in common is their goal of improving decisions and the future of humanity.

Auguste Comte. Source: es.m.wikipedia.org

Depending on the point of view and the methodology, the historian will interpret the past in a particular way. These schools arose from the need to generate particular theories to explain the social, political, economic and anthropological events of the world's societies.

The four schools of historical interpretation

Over time, different schools have emerged in the Western world with the main objective of having a better understanding of historical events. Currently there are four fundamental schools: the positivist, the historicist, the historical materialism and the school of the Annales.

Philosophy -in charge of the reflection of human existence- accompanies history in the explanation, creation of theories and ideologies, to understand the questions of man and the explanation of his past.

Positivism

Positivism is defined as a philosophical movement that developed in Europe during the 19th and 20th centuries. According to the experts of the positivist school, knowledge is valid when it comes from observation and experience. For this reason, he harshly criticizes superstition and speculation in the historical context.

Auguste Comte is considered the founder of the positivist movement and is the one who gave rise to scientific sociology.

Comte began the development of the doctrine in a post-revolutionary French period, in which both France and Europe yearned for a stable political regime. In addition, there was a great motivation for the construction of a social order free of chaos.

Positivism is based on the scientific method to affirm and raise hypotheses. It is a current that sees science as a way to explain social phenomena. In this sense, scientists should avoid using "common sense" and always corroborate information before defining it as fact.

Its main postulates are based on the enrichment of history through exact and rigorous data, as well as detailed investigation of the facts.

It is a movement that uses the exact sciences to search for knowledge and social applications in a given environment.

For Comte, the human mind must go through a couple of states before being able to issue a valid historical opinion: the magical or religious and the metaphysical. Then the positive state is reached, which is based on laws, observation and experience.

Historicism

Historicism is responsible for studying objects, events and phenomena from the beginning of the process to its completion. Historicists use the science of the spirit more than the exact sciences or universal laws. Contrary to other ideas of thought, historicism denies the existence of fixed historical laws.

Historicism conceives the historical fact as unique and unrepeatable and sees history as a form of evolution of the world. In addition, it provides a basis for man to be able to study, analyze and understand history as a process that has its own beginning, development and end.

For the historicists, everything that can affect man (scientific, artistic, religious or political facts) are considered historical and are objects of deep analysis.

The German philosopher Johann Gottfried Herdel is considered one of the greatest representatives of historicism. According to Herdel, the behavior of societies and of the human being is understood from the knowledge of their history.

One of the criticisms of this school is the construction of facts or events that did not really occur to explain a phenomenon; that is, you cannot be sure of its veracity. This detail removes a bit of veracity from their arguments, since they allow for speculation.

Historical materialism

Historical materialism is a term originally used by Frederick Engels and strongly influenced by Marxist and Leninist doctrines. This form of interpretation is intended to understand universal human history from the economic point of view.

Engels, based on the principles of the German economist Karl Marx, adopted in his historical interpretation economic factors such as techniques of work, production and labor relations. These factors gave significant weight to the historical events of the world.

This school is closely linked to Marxism; However, various historians and sociologists, in disagreement with Marx's ideas, have used these principles to develop materialistic systems and approaches to the studies of history.

The postulates of historical materialism are based on affirming that the economic factor is fundamental and determining in the history of humanity. For the sympathizers of this Marxist doctrine, most of the time history must be explained as a class struggle.

Currently, this school is seen as a beginning to explain historical events related to economics. It must be resorted to in certain circumstances, since not every historical instance gives room for materialist analysis.

In fact, even when historical analysis allows a materialistic approach, it is advisable to turn to other schools to generate more impartial opinions.

The School of the Annales

Marc bloch

The School of the Annales was founded by Lucien Febvre and Marc Bloch in 1929, in France. It is known for being one of the most important historiographic currents of the 20th century and, especially, of French historiography.

The first precepts and thoughts of the current were exposed in a recognized magazine of the time and shortly afterwards it was adopted as a historiographic current. The magazine bore the name of the school: Annales de la Historia.

This school is interested in history from the social point of view and not on the basis of the political and individual events of man.

The Annales stream is based on the methodology of the social sciences. The historian of this school writes history in order to answer questions and solve specific problems. For that reason, it is compared to some extent with the exact natural sciences.

Unlike classical historiography, historians of this school do not write about the past, but rather make an exhaustive interpretation of history. For interpretation, they start from their own subjective concepts to explain historical phenomena.

The School of the Annales is not only interested in the deep interpretation of historical events, but also in the details of societies. Some of the things it takes into account are: clothing, peasant dialects, musical instruments, social behaviors, etc.

References

1. Schools of historical interpretation, Rosalba Adriana Monroy Resendiz, (2014). Taken from cvonline.uaeh.edu.mx
2. Auguste Comte, Portal Philosophica, (nd). Taken from philosophica.info
3. School of historical interpretation. Positivist School, Website Historia de México ABC, (2015). Taken from historiademexico1abc.wordpress.com
4. Historical materialism, Nicola Abbagnano, (nd). Taken from Philosophy.org
5. Escuela de los Annales, Spanish Wikipedia, (nd). Taken from wikipedia.org