National Research University – Higher School of Economics
Department of History
Syllabus of the course: “History of Historical Knowledge”
Master’s program “Applied and Interdisciplinary History «Usable Pasts»”
Government of the Russian Federation
National Research University Higher School of Economics
Saint-Petersburg School of Social Sciences and Humanities
Syllabus of the course:
History of Historical Knowledge
Master’s program « Applied and Interdisciplinary History «Usable Pasts»»
Author of the syllabus: Evgeny Khvalkov, ekhvalkov@hse.ru
Approved by the manager of Applied and Interdisciplinary History
Programme Office: Maria Kattsova, mkattsova@hse.ru
day/month/year «___»____________ 2015
Head of the program:
Julia Lajus (signature)
Saint Petersburg, 2015
This syllabus cannot be used by other university departments and other higher education
institutions without the explicit permission of the department of History.
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National Research University – Higher School of Economics
Department of History
Syllabus of the course: “History of Historical Knowledge”
Master’s program “Applied and Interdisciplinary History «Usable Pasts»”
Аннотация к программе курса «История исторической науки»
Russian Summary/Аннотация
Данный курс предназначен для ознакомления студентов с историей исторической
науки от зарождения основ исторического знания до конца 20 века. Курс покрывает
такие темы как историография античности, средних веков, эпохи Ренессанса, эпохи
Просвещения, а также историографию романтизма, позитивизма и методологический
кризис в истории конца 19 века. Курс состоит из лекций и семинаров и предполагает
активное участие студентов в обсуждении и написание ими эссе по темам
прошедших лекции и семинара. Кроме того, каждый участник курса подготавливает
презентацию масштабной фигуры из истории исторической науки и представляет ее
во время семинара.
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National Research University – Higher School of Economics
Department of History
Syllabus of the course: “History of Historical Knowledge”
Master’s program “Applied and Interdisciplinary History «Usable Pasts»”
1
Scope of Use
This syllabus outlines the requirements for students’ knowledge and skills and the
content of the course. It is developed for the department of History, its faculty members,
and students of the graduate program ‘Applied and Interdisciplinary History «Usable
Pasts»’. This syllabus meets the standards required by Standards of National Research
University Higher School of Economics of Federal Masters’ Degree Program History
(46.04.01). Curriculum of the master’s program ‘Applied and Interdisciplinary History
«Usable Pasts»’ as of 2015.
2
Objectives of the course
●
This basic course is designed to present the development of historical
knowledge. In the first half of the course “History of Historical Knowledge”, the
students will learn the evolution of historiography from the times of Antiquity to the
early twentieth century.
●
The course explores a variety of historical writings over time and from
different parts of the world according to their development. This course enables
Master’s students to learn how to work with professional historical literature, and to
accumulate and work individually within a rich environment of historiography.
●
Within this course, students will discuss major developments that have been
significant in history on different stages of the development of scholarship.
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Supposed results.
The students are supposed to adopt the following competences:
System competencies
Code
(RUS)
СК-4
Code
(EN)
SC-4
СК-6
SC-6
Competence description
Ability to develop and enhance one’s own
intellectual and cultural levels and to build the
trajectory of one’s professional development and
career.
Ability to analyze, verify, and estimate the entirety of
information in one's professional performance,
ability to fill the gaps and synthesize required
information when needed.
Professional competencies
Code
Code (EN)
Competence description
(RUS
3
National Research University – Higher School of Economics
Department of History
Syllabus of the course: “History of Historical Knowledge”
Master’s program “Applied and Interdisciplinary History «Usable Pasts»”
)
ПК-3
PC-3
ПК-5
PC-5
ПК-6
PC-6
ПК-7
PC-7
Ability to read scholarly texts and to epitomize
scholarly literature in Russian and in foreign
languages.
Ability to present the results of the research in
Russian and foreign languages, to analyze and
generalize the results of the scholarly research
based on the contemporary interdisciplinary
approaches.
Ability to search, handle and present information,
work with the databases in the Humanities.
Ability to formulate scholarly problems of current
interest that can enrich historical scholarship
through their study, ability to reach perspective
research and applied goals.
Personal and social competencies
Code
Code (EN) Competence description
(RUS)
Ability to shape the skills of perception of the
ПКPC-16
historical text.
16
Ability to analyze and present a scholarly-grounded
ПКPC-17
interpretation of historical events in their
17
connection and entanglement.
Ability to set and transmit legal and ethical norms
ПКPC-20
in the professional and ethical activity.
20
Research tasks
Code
Code (EN)
(RUS)
НИД
NID 1
1
НИД
4
NID 4
Competence description
Identification and structuring of a research problem
in the sphere of professional activity, independent
choice, justification of the object, matter, final aim,
goals and methods of the research in relevant
problem in the professional field and their
implementation – independent organization of
scholarly research in a relevant field, in the
interdisciplinary sphere, preparation and
implementation of the research projects related to
the profile of the OOP of the master’s program.
Analysis and generalization of the scholarly
research according to the requirements of the up-to4
National Research University – Higher School of Economics
Department of History
Syllabus of the course: “History of Historical Knowledge”
Master’s program “Applied and Interdisciplinary History «Usable Pasts»”
date historical scholarship.
Educational tasks
Code
Code
(RUS) (ENG)
ПеД 1 PeD 1
Competence description
Teaching of the course of history on all levels of
basic and professional education.
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Pre-requisites, course type, role of the discipline within the structure of
Master program
This is an introductory mandatory course taught in the first year of the master’s
program “Applied and Interdisciplinary History «Usable Pasts»”.
The following knowledge and competences are needed to study the discipline:
●
Basic knowledge of cultural history of Europe and the world from the times of
Antiquity till the early twentieth century.
●
Upper-intermediate or advanced reading and speaking skills in English.
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Course Plan
LECTURES
LECTURES 1-2. Introduction to historiography. Antiquity: Herodotus, Thucydides,
Polybius. Christianity, St. Augustine and medieval historiography. Renaissance
humanist historiography: key categories. Erudite school: Biondo, Valla. Political
rhetorical school: Bruni, Machiavelli, Guicciardini. Humanism in France and England:
Jean Bodin, Francis Bacon. Cartesianism and social physics. Erudite school of the 17th
c.: Tilemont, Mabillon, Montfaucon. Historiography of English revolution.
LECTURES 3-4. British Enlightenment. Hobbes, Locke, school of natural law.
Bolingbroke, Hume. Gibbon. French Enlightenment and Roman-German problem.
L’abbé Sieyès, Antoine Barnave. Italian enlightenment: Vico. German enlightenment:
Kant. Herder. American enlightenment.
LECTURES 5-6. Historiography of romanticism. Conservative romanticism. Liberal
and democratic romanticism. British romanticism. German idealism: Fichte, Schelling,
Hegel. German historians: Humboldt, German historical school of jurisprudence).
Ranke.
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National Research University – Higher School of Economics
Department of History
Syllabus of the course: “History of Historical Knowledge”
Master’s program “Applied and Interdisciplinary History «Usable Pasts»”
LECTURES 7-8. Positivism in France, Britain, America, Germany.
LECTURES 9-10. Attack on history by Nietzsche. Methodological crisis of historical
knowledge. Neo-Kantianism. Weber & Sombart.
SEMINARS
The first nine seminars will be focused on the discussion of the pivotal readings of
major history-writers discussed during the lectures (to be announced). In the following
nine seminars, students will present and discuss their own papers.
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Requirements and Grading
Type of Type of
grading work
Current Discussi
on in the
class and
homewor
k
Paper
Final
Exam
Parameters
Discussion in the seminars and individual
presentations of readings + response papers
following the seminars and summarizing the
lecture material, readings, and discussion in the
seminar.
Paper is to be written and discussed on one of
the seminars
Oral exam by the end of the semester.
6 Course Evaluation Criteria
Students are expected to attend both lectures and seminars and to regularly do the
homework reading and study according to the lists of sources provided by the lecturer.
On seminars, students are expected to take active part in the discussion and demonstrate
knowledge of the content of lectures and respective readings. If the student misses more
than 20% of class meetings, additional assignment will be provided. The deadlines
should be met. The oral exam by the end of the course will be provided in the form of a
conversation of the student with the course instructor on one of the topics of the course.
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Grading system
The grade will be composed of class attendance, participation in the discussions
during the seminars (based on the readings), response papers and oral exam.
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National Research University – Higher School of Economics
Department of History
Syllabus of the course: “History of Historical Knowledge”
Master’s program “Applied and Interdisciplinary History «Usable Pasts»”
8
Guidelines for knowledge assessment
O stands for “grade”. The final grade Ofinal will be formed based on the results of the
final oral exam (Oexam) and accumulated grade (Oacc).
The accumulated grade (Oacc) in its turn is formed of discussion in the seminars and
individual presentations of readings (1), response papers following the seminars and
summarizing the lecture material, readings, and discussion in the seminar (2), and a
paper which should be written on a figure on historiography of student’s choice, ideally
linked to their course paper / thesis project (3). The paper will be discussed on one of
the seminars.
Accumulated grade is counted based on participation and activity in the debates –
20%, response papers – 20%, written paper and its oral discussion on a seminar – 20%.
The formula for the accumulated grade is the following
Oacc = 0,2 Odebate + 0,2 Oresp.papers + 0,2 Opaper of choice
Accumulated grade contributes 60% of the final grade. The remaining 40% are linked
to the oral exam.
The formula for the final grade is the following
Ofinal = 0,6Oacc + 0,4 Oexam
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