Rationality and History

Abstract

The past two decades have seen a lively theoretical discussion internationally on how history is to be written and at the same time a conscious reorientation in the writing of history itself. The term “postmodernism” has at times been applied to the new theoretical outlook and the new historiography.¹ The discussion has raised certain very fundamental questions regarding the nature of historical inquiry similar to those which have been asked regarding other forms of intellectual activity. These questions have revolved around the assumptions which have underlain historical writing — and philosophical thought — since the beginning of the Western tradition of secular history. There were two assumptions which were central to this tradition from Herodotus and Thucydides to the very recent past, namely, that there is a distinction, even if not necessarily an absolute dividing line, between fact and fiction, and similarly that there is a difference between rational thought and free imagination, even if the two may intersect.