Practice question · Sort into groups
Sort each practice: does it belong to objectivity as procedure or to the impossible mirror?
Groups: Objectivity as procedure · The impossible mirror
- Have no standpoint and no questions of your own
- State your criteria of selection openly
- Actively seek evidence that would disconfirm your thesis
- Report the past exactly as it actually was
Hints
- One conception is a discipline; the other is an impossible standard.
- Holding a standpoint accountable is not the same as having none.
Show the answer
Objectivity as procedure: State your criteria of selection openly, Actively seek evidence that would disconfirm your thesis
The impossible mirror: Have no standpoint and no questions of your own, Report the past exactly as it actually was
Why
Objectivity is not the absence of a standpoint, that is unavailable to anyone. It is the discipline of holding a standpoint accountable, in public, where it can be checked.
Practise The Epistemology of History
The app has 5 more questions on this lesson, and keeps your place in the course. History I is free to start.
More questions on The Epistemology of History
- A manuscript claiming to be a fifth-century charter mentions a fortress built in the ninth. What kind of…
- Because every historian selects and interprets, all historical accounts are equally valid.
- Why is incidental detail, a bill of lading listing the price of pepper, such strong evidence?
- Why does the archive tilt toward the wealthy, literate, and metropolitan?
- Complete the account of historical evidence.
- Put the three filters in the order they act on the past.