History largely determines the vector of development of the future: the one who controls the past controls the present and the future. There is an opinion that history is the most politicized science. And this opinion has the right to exist, because each previous era denies the other, as a result, history is adjusted taking into account the demands of time.

Historical knowledge covers several millennia, and if the understanding of the ancient world based on dilapidated sources, archaeological excavations, assumptions and hypotheses, then the mainstay of modern history is facts, events, documents, statistics and human evidence.

If we consider facts as fragments of reality, we can understand that in themselves they say nothing. For historical knowledge, the fact is the basis, and only a historian can give the fact the meaning that certain ideological and theoretical views require. Therefore, one and the same fact in historical practice can have a different vision. Thus, the interpretation that stands between the fact and its understanding by historical science is important.

Historical schools and the subject of their research

The subject itself historical science defined ambiguously. On the one hand, the subject of history is political, economic, demographic history, as well as the history of a particular place - a village, city, country, sometimes the history of a separate unit of society - a person, family, clan.

Modern historical schools have up to thirty definitions of the subject of history (in the scientific sense). As a rule, the subject of history is determined by the worldview of the historian, his philosophical and ideological convictions. Therefore, one should not look for objectivity in the history, the support in its understanding should be one's own understanding of the processes, independent work with facts and sources, as well as critical thinking.

Historians-materialists are of the opinion that history studies the patterns of development of society, which depend on material goods and the methods of their production. In other words, from the point of view of materialism, history is based on economic relations, and with the help of society, the reasons for the development or non-development of these relations are determined.

At the heart of the liberal understanding is the belief that the subject is specifically a person (his personality), through which his natural rights are realized. That is, history, according to liberal historians, studies people in time.

Many of us, especially schoolchildren and their parents, tirelessly wonder why we need to know history. What is the significance and relevance of studying the events of many years ago? However, there are many different reasons that indicate the need to study this subject, which is a combination of many other disciplines. Many arguments have already been made about the importance of history, but they still hold true today.

virtual time machine

Raise Patriots

A healthy social atmosphere in the country, a full-fledged society and peace is the goal that all people in general and each individual state in particular strive for. It is impossible to evaluate everything with money and pay for everything. Therefore, the state rests not on businessmen, but on patrons, altruists and patriots. The whole world is based on them. History remembers them. Those who loved their country, who gave their lives for the happiness of others. These are fearless warriors, and selfless doctors, and talented scientists, and simply disinterested patriots of their people.

Why is history needed? Because it popularly tells each next generation about what it owes to its ancestors. We will find out what ideals our great-grandfathers lived by, what feats they performed. We understand how their lives have affected our present. Raising respect for the past with its reforms, struggles, victories and failures is the task of history.

Why study history?

Today is inseparable from yesterday. All people and peoples live in history: we speak languages ​​that have come down to us from the distant past, we live in societies with complex cultures inherited from ancient times, we use technologies developed by our ancestors… Thus, the study of the relationship between the past and the present is undeniable basis for a good understanding of contemporary human existence. This explains why we need history, why and how important it is in our lives.

Acquaintance with the human past is the path to self-knowledge. History helps to understand the origins of modern social and political problems. It is the most important source for studying the characteristic behavior of people in various social conditions. History makes us realize that people in the past were not just "good" or "bad", but motivated in complex and conflicting ways, just as they are now.

Each person's view of the world is shaped by individual experience, as well as the experience of the society in which he lives. If we do not know the contemporary and historical experience of different cultures, then we cannot even hope to understand how people, societies or nations make decisions in modern world.

The very essence

Historical knowledge is nothing more and nothing less than a carefully and critically constructed collective memory. It is memory that makes us human, and collective memory, that is, history, makes us society. Why know history? Yes, without an individual, he will immediately lose his identity, will not know how to act when meeting other people. The same thing happens with collective memory, although its loss will not be noticeable so instantly.

However, memory cannot be frozen in time. Collective memory is gradually taking on a new meaning. Historians are constantly working to rethink the past, asking new questions, searching for new ones, and analyzing old documents in order to gain new knowledge and experience in order to better understand the past and what is happening. History is constantly changing and expanding, as is our memory, helping us acquire new knowledge and skills to improve our lives….

SECTION I BASIS OF HISTORICAL KNOWLEDGE

The value of studying history. One can cite many sayings of great people about the benefits of studying history. The famous Roman orator Cicero called history the teacher of life. Similar ideas were expressed by many other prominent figures. Thus, the Spanish writer Miguel Cervantes noted that history is a treasury of our deeds, a witness of the past and a lesson for the present, a warning for the future, and the Russian writer Leonid Andreev argued: “To go forward, look back more often, because otherwise you will forget where you came from and where you need to go."

The above and many other similar statements emphasize the idea that knowledge of the past helps to better understand the present and even foresee the future. Indeed, despite all the differences between the present and even the very recent past, it is easy to see that much in the life of mankind has remained unchanged since its appearance on Earth.

People have always sought to improve their lives and the lives of their children, and for this they always had to work using natural resources. They interacted with each other, uniting in various communities. Between these communities (tribes, nationalities, states, social groups) clashes often occurred and at the same time mutually beneficial ties and cooperation existed. Since ancient times, man has been trying to realize his place in the world, therefore, problems related to spiritual life (religion, culture) were of great importance in his life.

All spheres of life of human society have their own patterns, which are studied by historical science. Having considered the effect of these patterns in the past, we can use them in the modern world. The Russian philosopher Arseniy Gulyga believed that history is a school of behavior and in the past people are looking for and finding the right examples. In his opinion, the experience of history is a true guide, which is often used unconsciously. This is how they behave individual people and entire nations.

True, there is another well-known aphorism: "History teaches that it teaches nothing." New generations of people often make the same mistakes as their predecessors. This is probably due to the feeling of superiority of each new generation: after all, people in the past did not know much of what anyone knows. modern man. But we must remember that people at all times have solved problems (sometimes successfully, sometimes not) no less complex than those facing modern humanity.

On the other hand, the failure to use the "lessons of history" is also due to insufficient knowledge of this science. That is why the study of history is important for every person, regardless of his profession.

The problem of reliability of historical knowledge. Many big and small events have happened and are happening in the world. First of all, they need to be ranked in order of importance. Here begins the work of a historian who knows how to consider events as links in a certain chain stretching from the past to the present.

In history, unlike many other sciences, there is an "Achilles heel": the object of historical science - the past - can be called an unreal reality. The correctness of our knowledge of what was before is very difficult to verify. Experiments, experiments to confirm theories and hypotheses (as it happens in other sciences) are largely unrealizable in history. Is it possible to be sure of the truth of our ideas about the past, and if we go even further - in the possibility of knowing history in general?

Historical science has accumulated a rich arsenal of techniques and methods that make it possible to make our knowledge of the past as a whole provable, verifiable and consistent.

Of course, the historian does not consider it possible to reveal "the whole truth" about the event he is studying. But the same applies to any other, even the most exact science. After all, the world is endless, and the process of its knowledge is endless. There are heated disputes between historians on a variety of issues. Sometimes discoveries are made that fundamentally change established concepts. However, now few people will deny a number of firmly established facts and assessments of the past. It is these facts and assessments that form the basis of educational literature on history.

Historical sources and the main methods of the historian's work. The most important problem of historical science is the problem of sources. In the most general terms, historical sources can be called all the remnants of past historical writing, up to very recent times, the role of archaeological materials is very large (for example, for the study of the Great Patriotic War important data is obtained through the search for weapons and military equipment, the remains of soldiers in battlefields). At present, scientific archaeological excavations are carried out subject to strict rules: after all, often the most important information is provided not only by the found things, but also, for example, by their relative position. closely related to archeology. anthropology, which, based on the remains of people, as a rule, extracted by archaeologists, recreates appearance person. Anthropology is especially important in recreating the history of the emergence and settlement of peoples. These questions are among the most important for historical linguistics(linguistics), studying the origin and development of ancient and modern languages. Part of linguistics are onomastics(science of names), toponymy(science of geographical names). The most valuable information for historians is provided by the coins that he studies numismatics. Coats of arms explores heraldry, printing - sphragistics. In the study of history, an important place is given to ethnography. The customs and traditions, occupations and way of life of peoples, for various reasons, remained on

transitional stages of development, help in recreating the past of all mankind. Some ancient customs and traditions have been preserved among quite civilized peoples, which is also the object of study by ethnographers. Important, and sometimes unique information about the past is contained in legends, legends, fairy tales of the peoples of the world. Studying these sources folklore makes a huge contribution to historical science. As mankind develops, the number of historical sources increases. In the XIX-beginning of the XX century. such of them as photographs, sound recordings, newsreels arose in the second half of the 20th century. electronic documents have appeared. All this expands the possibilities of historical research. The purpose of studying historical sources is to extract the facts necessary to solve the problem under study. Thus, the work of the historian begins with the formulation of the question to which the scientist wants to find an answer. In this regard, any scientific work history begins with a review of scientific literature (historiography), which reveals the solved and unsolved problems and contradictions of former researchers. The historian also evaluates the possibility of solving the problem posed and, above all, the presence of remains includes both everything consciously created by people, and everything that appeared independently of their consciousness (for example, the remains of the people themselves). The source is also the "past in the present", for example, the languages ​​that arose in antiquity, which are now spoken by the peoples of the world, customs and traditions, geographical names, etc.

The historian, when studying a topic, seeks to draw on as wide a range of sources as possible. When classifying sources, their origin, form and content are taken into account. Most often, sources are divided according to their form into seven types:

1) written;

2) real;

3) ethnographic;

4) oral (folklore);

5) linguistic;

6) film and photographic documents;

7) phono documents.

It is clear that many sources are difficult to attribute to any one species. For example, coins are both material and written sources. The form of the source largely determines the methods of working with it. There are a number of so-called auxiliary historical disciplines that study certain types of sources.

So, when working with written sources, one cannot do without paleography- a science that studies the external features of handwritten and printed sources in their historical development (writing signs, features of their graphics, handwriting, writing material, etc.). When examining ancient written sources that have come down to us, as a rule, in several lists with some differences, historians use textology- an auxiliary historical discipline that studies the relationship of various lists, revealing their original form.

Historians obtain the most extensive information about the past from written sources. However, they must be read. The oldest written documents are about 5 thousand years old. Many of them are written either in languages ​​that are now dead or in ancient forms of modern languages.

A number of dead languages ​​were never forgotten (Latin, Ancient Greek), others were deciphered in the 19th-20th centuries. (Ancient Egyptian, Sumerian, Akkadian, Hittite, the language of the Mayan people, etc.), and some have not yet been solved (for example, Elamite, Etruscan).

A significant part of material sources was obtained with the help of archeology. Our information about the history of peoples before the appearance of writing in them is mainly based on the data of archaeological excavations. Yes, and for the period after the invention

To solve the problem posed, the historian draws on facts gleaned from sources. When selecting facts, assessing their significance, their interpretation, the scientist relies on his theoretical ideas. Among them, the methodology used by the historian, firmly established scientific conclusions regarding the problem under consideration, information from other sciences that help to understand the historical problem under study, general cultural ideas and, finally, everyday life observations, which often allow you to immediately assess, for example, are reliable or the information contained in the source is unreliable. Thus, the process of historical research combines work with sources and the use of theoretical knowledge. It is in this way that the historian can reveal the patterns of historical development.

Title page

Introduction…………………………………………………………………….....3

1. What is history? .............................................. .........................................5

2. The subject of history as a science: purpose, objectives of study, socially significant functions………………………………………………………..……...8

3.Periodization of world history………………………………………….13

Conclusion…………………………………………………………………...14

List of used literature……………………………………….16

Introduction

Interest in the past has existed since the beginning of the human race. This interest is difficult to explain by human curiosity alone. The fact is that man himself is a historical being. It grows, changes, develops over time, is the product of this development.

The original meaning of the word "history" goes back to the ancient Greek term meaning "investigation", "recognition", "establishment". History was identified with the establishment of authenticity, the truth of events and facts. In Roman historiography (Historiography is a branch of historical science that studies its history), this word began to mean not a way of recognizing, but a story about the events of the past. Soon, “history” began to be called in general any story about any case, incident, real or fictional. At present, we use the word "history" in two senses: firstly, to denote a story about the past, and secondly, when it comes to the science that studies the past.

The subject of history is defined ambiguously. The subject of history can be social, political, economic, demographic history, the history of the city, village, family, private life. The definition of the subject of history is subjective, connected with the ideology of the state and the outlook of the historian. Historians who take materialistic positions believe that history as a science studies the patterns of development of society, which, ultimately, depend on the method of production of material goods. This approach prioritizes economics, society - and not people - in explaining causality. Historians adhering to liberal positions are convinced that the subject of the study of history is a person (personality) in the self-realization of natural rights granted by nature. The famous French historian Mark Blok defined history as “the science of people in time”.

1. What is history?

History is one of the oldest sciences, it is about 2500 years old. Its founder is the ancient Greek historian Herodotus (V century BC). The ancients valued history very much and called it "magistra vitae" (teacher of life).

History is usually defined as the sciences about the past - past reality, about what once happened to a person, a people, society as a whole. Thus, history is reduced to a simple analysis of events, processes, states that have sunk into oblivion in one way or another. Such an understanding of history is neither accurate nor complete; moreover, it is internally contradictory. In fact, history does not allow people to forget "their past life." History, as it were, resurrects the past, the past, rediscovering and reconstructing it for the present. Thanks to history, historical knowledge, the past does not die, but continues to live in the present, serving the present.

It is noteworthy that in Ancient Greece the patroness of history was Clio - the goddess who glorifies. The scroll and the slate stick in her hands are a symbol and a guarantee that nothing should disappear without a trace.

History is the collective memory of the people, the memory of the past. But the memory of the past is no longer the past in the proper sense of the word. This is the past, restored and being restored according to the norms of the present, with a focus on the values ​​and ideals of people's lives in the present, because the past exists for us through the present and thanks to it. K. Jaspers expressed this idea in his own way: "History directly concerns us ... And everything that concerns us, thereby constitutes the problem of the present for a person."

Initial meaning of the word "story" goes back to the Greek "ioropia", which means "investigation", "recognition", "establishment". Thus, initially "story" identified with a way of recognizing, establishing genuine events and facts. However, in Roman historiography, it has already acquired second meaning (a story about the events of the past), that is, the focus was shifted from the study of the past to the narrative of it. During the Renaissance there is third meaning of the word "history". By history they began to understand type of literature, special function which was establishing and fixing the truth.

However, as an independent field of knowledge, especially scientific, history was not considered for a long time. It did not have its own subject in the period of Antiquity, the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, and even in the Enlightenment. How does this fact fit in with the rather high prestige and wide distribution of historical knowledge? How to connect it with a huge number of works containing historical information, from Herodotus and Thucydides, through countless medieval chronicles, annals and "lives", to historical studies of the beginning of the New Age? This is explained by the fact that history has long been integrated into common system knowledge. In the eras of Antiquity and the Middle Ages, it existed and developed in combination with mythology, religion, theology, literature, and to some extent with geography. In the Renaissance, it was given a powerful impetus by geographical discoveries, the flourishing of art, and political theories. In the XVII-XVIII centuries. history was associated with political theory, geography, literature, philosophy, culture.

The need for the allocation of proper scientific knowledge began to be felt since the time of the natural scientific revolution (XVII century). However, also in early XIX centuries, the “indivisibility” of “philosophical” and scientific knowledge, on the one hand, and of science itself in disciplines, on the other, continued to be preserved.

One of the first attempts to determine the place of history as a scientific discipline with its own subject was undertaken by the German philosopher W. Krug in his work "The Experience of a Systematic Encyclopedia of Knowledge". The circle divided the sciences into philological and real, real - into positive (legal and theological) and natural, natural - into historical and rational, etc. In turn, the "historical" sciences were divided into geographical (place) and proper historical (time) disciplines.

At the end of the XIX century. the French philosopher A. Naville divided all sciences into three groups:

1. "Theoretics" - "sciences about the limits of possibilities or laws" (mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology, psychology, sociology).

2. "History" - "sciences about realized possibilities or facts" (astronomy, geology, botany, zoology, mineralogy, human history).

3. "Canonical" - "the science of the possibilities, the realization of which would be a blessing, or the ideal rules of behavior" (morality, art theory, law, medicine, pedagogy).

2. The subject of history as a science: purpose, objectives of study, socially significant functions.

The study of any science begins with the definition of the concepts with which it operates in the process of cognition, both nature and society. From this point of view, the question arises: what is history as a science? What is the subject of its study? Answering this question, first of all, it is necessary to distinguish between history as any process of development of nature and society, which are closely interconnected, and history as

Strange as it may seem to you, even the most venerable professors - historians - cannot give a clear definition of what history studies. And some people are generally convinced that history is not a science, because. it does not have a specific subject or object of study. Exist different kinds history: history of society, history of sports, economic history etc. And it is very difficult to combine them all with each other.

In the literal translation, the word "history" means "a story about the events of the past." And knowing the past is important for humanity, because. historical experience is of no small importance in the development of society. Let's try to find an answer to the question of what history studies is necessary and useful for modern man.

What does the science of history study

People have always been interested in knowing what happened before and how our ancestors lived.

The science of history operates only with exact facts. Like any other science, history develops, accumulates new facts and knowledge that it receives from various historical sources.

Many people mistakenly believe that history is only about the study of events and dates. But this is the science called chronology. And the main task of history is the accumulation and generalization of human experience. History allows you to identify cause-and-effect relationships that arise between various phenomena. The analysis of these connections makes it possible to understand the essence of historical phenomena, and most importantly, to draw the necessary conclusions to avoid repeating some of the mistakes of the past. Believe that the past does not disappear into nowhere, but continues to live around us in the experience of social life accumulated by mankind.

History studies the life of people in space and time. At the same time, the science of history does not imply any arbitrary withdrawal of facts from this life. In the past, history in our country was highly politicized, and many facts were hushed up or covered one-sidedly. At present, historians are moving away from the dogmas of the past and becoming objective. However, in recent years there have appeared many scientists - historians who evaluate historical events only as mistakes and tragedies. Such an approach to the study of the past also does not give an objective assessment of historical events and is fundamentally wrong.

Scientists - historians have written many different scientific works, which reflect the various stages historical development society, the relationship between various historical processes taking place in the world.

What does the philosophy of history study

Philosophy is called the queen of sciences for a reason. It studies the most general laws of development of nature and society. The branch of philosophy concerned with the study of the historical process, giving its interpretation, is called the philosophy of history.

The term "philosophy of history" was introduced in 1765 by the famous philosopher Voltaire. Subsequently, Hegel, Marx, Danilevsky, Comte, Spengler, Jaspers and many other philosophers played an important role in the development of this branch of philosophy.

The questions that the philosophy of history studies have changed over time. Currently, this science is studying:

1. factors that make human society develop;
2. the direction in which history is moving;
3. what role does history play in the present and future;
4. what awaits human society in the future.

In addition, the philosophy of history is trying to find an answer to the question of whether there are any laws that allow you to influence the course of the historical process, or whether history develops according to the will of "His Majesty" chance.

The philosophy of history and the science of history differ in their approach to historical events and facts. Historians are engaged only in the study of the real facts of the past, they do not make any predictions for the future. Evaluating historical events, historians do not allow the subjunctive mood, i.e. describe and study only the real, and not the possible, course of historical events. In contrast, the philosophy of history not only studies the lines of development of any events in the past, but also tries to transfer them to the future.