08/26/08 Notes on historians
Alexander Hayes, MS History 121
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Nostalgia is a seductive liar. Historians record history in their eyes,
glorifying the good parts and down sizing the bad. We think of the past
fondly and often refer to the good old days.
Historiology is the study of history. A person for studies history,
academically, is a historiologist where as, a historian records history.
History is the past.
Where do you get information from if you are a historian? Your own
research, history books, primary resources such as political censuses.
Primary sources are, for example, an eyewitness or pictures. Also, crafts
and potting, along with other items are primary resources.
Secondary resources are newspapers and birth records. Letters are
another secondary resource.
As a historian you must assess the information and try and find out the
truth. They can check multiple accounts to verify information.
Herodotus was considered the father of historians. His first claim to fame
was recording the Persian wars. Thucydides, his associate, documented
the Peloponnesian war between Athens and Sparta. These historians
documented wars. I believe they did this because this is what the Greeks
society revolved around. They lived in 5th C. BC.
In documenting wars, things that historians documented where: date
started, date ended, deaths, between whom, battle strategies, who won,
the spoils, how big the armies where, battles, officers, who ordered the
war, and possibly the type of weapons used.
In the Greek 4th C. BC lived Xenophon, Theopompus of Chios, Ephorus,
and Polybius (2nd C. BC). These historians where important because they
documented political success and military success. Again, when reading
their writings we have to think like they were glorifying their time, if we
would like to get accurate information. The Greeks required no training to
become a historian.
Romans required some training to become historians. Cato the elder was
one of the most famous historians in Rome. He is important because he
documented history in Latin, the major language of the time. This was
important because many people could read Latin, and it help spread
history. Cato also employed some ethical reflections and we see some of
his own opinions in his writings. Cicero, also a historian of that time, is
important because he talked about moral standards of the people. Livy,
Tacitus, and Suetonius also talked about morals and they incorporated
public life in their works.
During the beginning of the rise of Christianity someone of religious
importance recorded history. One important historian of that period (c.324)
is Eusebius of Caesarea. He documented with a focus one religious life,
average people, and questioning existence. Paulus Orosius (c. 385-429)
was another Christian who documented history. He reinterpreted roman
history. St. Augustine was another historian of that time. He compared
secular and Christian history.
History notes 08/27/08
History 121
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When the Roman Empire fell, historians and historiology was kind of
forgotten. On to the Middle Ages. The clergy became responsible for
recording history, and much of what they recorded was, religion.
Bede the Venerable wrote the “Ecclesiastical history of the English
people” a history of England’s religion (he was an English monks). He
was one of the first of England’s first Historians. It is important to know
that this is from his view point. Also during the Middle Ages we had
William of Malmesbury (c. 1090-1143) also an English monk, Otto of
Friezing (German), and Jean de Joinville, who wrote about king Louis
on his crusades. Along with them Jean Froissart wrote about French
and English chivalry during the hundred year’s war.
In the renaissance (in this period Greek and roman history was
intensified, and a renewal of rhetorical education happened, and
politics were viewed from a secular and realistic standpoint) as a man
named Leonardo Bruni recorded. Niccolo Mchiavelli and Franseco
Guicciardini recorded political history influenced by human laws and
ambitions.
In the enlightenment period more people became aware of things and
thus the enlightenment period got its name. During this period history
writing emphasized literary skill at the expense of research. Therefore
it became more important to tell a good story. From the 16th century
forward historians start collecting sources for national and religious
history. The realized that you cannot just tell a good story.
Some historians from the enlightenment period are Jean Mabillon,
Bernard de Montfaucon, Ludovico Muratori, Gottffried Leibniz, Joseph
Eckhel, Sir William Dugdale, Bishop Thomas Tanner, and Thomas
Hearne. These historians recorded ecclesiastical history, Italian
history, medieval history, numismatics, and the history of England. Thy
also edited medieval history.
Fields of diplomats, numismatics, and archaeology where established
in the enlightenment period.
Voltaire Candide wrote the novel, “Candide” which attacked religious
and philosical optimisms. Voltaire ignored the focus on politics, and
included all facets of civilization. He displayed a cavalier impatience
with detail.
Montesquieu, David Hume, William Robert, and Marquis de Condorcet
examined history with a philosophical conception.
Edward Gibbon wrote “The history of the decline and fall of the roman
empire” which set the standard for historical writing and was written
excellently.
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Leopold von Ranke recorded the independent history of academic
discipline. Francois Guizot recorded the history of civilization. Fustel de
Coulanges recorded and studied medieval history and Thomas
Macaulay did a personal essay of history. William Stubbs studied
English history through research of sources. Samuel Gardiner and
Fredrick Maitland carried on with Stubbs works and the examined the
sources of history.
George Bancroft studied U.S. history 75 years after we came over from
England.
Current trends in history include a focus on social science, sociology,
psychology, anthropology, and economics.
Non-western Historiography
Muslim
 More consistent then western history. Strongly influenced by religion.
 Prophet Muhammad provided Islam with strong sense of history. Both 8 th
and 9th century historians were writing a record of Muhammad’s life.
 Al Tabari (923) wrote “history of prophets and kings”.
 Ibn Khaldun was the only Muslim historian that suggested social and
economic reasons for historical change.
 Not influenced by western historians until the 18th century
Chinese History
 Has the longest, most voluminous record of its past.
 Chinese scholars had the task of conveying lessons for human life; a
part of all Chinese learning.
 Confucius: stressed the importance of exemplary history and keeping
the keeping of authentic records. (early as 3rd century BC)
 Chinese histories are the official records of scholars and bureaucrats
without personal bias.
 Ssu-ma Chien wrote “records of the Grand historian” (during the Han
dynasty).
 Liu Chih-chi (661-721) wrote about historical methods in any
languages.
 Ssu-mi Kuang (1019-1086) wrote a comprehensive history of China
through 959 (AD)
 In 17th century the Chinese developed an accurate detection of forgery
system by analyzing the language of the text, because history was so
important to them.
Alex H.
MS History 121
Fallacies of Relevance
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A logical fallacy is an error in reasoning.
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Deductively Valid Argument 1. Valid – if one and two are true, three is true
2. if one and two are true, three might be true - Aristotle and Pig
examples
Might Makes Right Fallacy – use of power and intimidation to prove point,
used in politics a lot
Genetic Fallacy – something is untrustworthy because of its ethnicity,
geography, or race
Argumentum ad Hominem 1. Information is not trust because it comes
from an unsavory source 2. information is trusted because it comes from
an unsavory source
Argumentum ad Populum, bandwagon – everybody is doing it, so should
you/patriotic, accepts and uses false information that is patriotic/snob, the
best people are doing it, so should you.
Argumentum ad Traditio – but that’s the way we have always done it/if it
ain’t broke, don’t fix it
Argumentum ad Verecundium – using an improper or under informed
“expert” to certify facts to make points/appeal to improper authority
Argumentum ad Misericordianam – appeal to emotion/example of serial
killer in court and family thing/use of something emotional to soften you up
to an argument
Component Fallacies
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Petitio Principii – begging the question, circular reasoning/example of
God’s existence
Dicto Simpliciter – incorrect parallel correlation/cannot assume one fact
from another
False Cause – cause effect relationship does not exist
Non Causa, Pro Causa – mistaking a false cause as the cause for an
event
Post Hoc, Ergo Propter Hoc – the first event proceeded the second event,
therefore it was the cause of the second event
Ignorantio Elenchi - establishes a particular conclusion and directs it to
prove a different conclusion/red herring any deliberate attempt to change
the subject or divert the argument from the real question/ straw man
argument any lame attempt to prove an argument by overstating,
exaggerating, or oversimplifying.
Slippery Slope Fallacy – once the first step is taken, the second and third
are sure to follow
Either or Fallacy – it’s either one or the other
Faulty Analogy – relying on only comparisons rather real evidence
Undistributed Middle Term Fallacy – all reptiles are cold blood, all snakes
are reptiles, all snakes are cold blooded (non-example)/all snails are cold
blooded, all snakes are cold blooded, all snails are snakes(example)
Fallacies of Ambiguity
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Equivocation – using a word in a different way the author intended
Amphiboly – misinterprets grammar to make point/panda – eats shoots
and leaves
Composition – the properties of the parts are properties of the whole
Division – reverse of composition/the properties of the whole is a property
of the parts
Fallacies of Omission
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Stacking the deck – opposite of the straw man fallacy/listing only
examples that proven the case/ignoring examples that disprove the
case/adding up false overwhelming evidence to prove one case right and
the other wrong
Argument from the negative – since one position is so unimaginable, the
other must be true
Appeal to lack of evidence – since the opposition cannot prove a point,
the opposite must be true
Hypothesis Contrary to the fact – trying to prove something in the real
world be using imaginary examples
Complex Question (Loaded Question) – phrasing a question in such a
way as to imply something untrue/Bob does drugs example
Logical Paradox (Contradictory Premises) – establishing a premises in a
such a way that it contradicts another, earlier established premise
Legends, Lore, and Lies By: Joseph Calabrese
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Cynicism is not really a reasoned position; it’s more a reasoned
outlook, one characterized by prior judgments that tend to be
dismissive.
A skeptic remains guardedly open to possibilities, evidence matter to
the latter.
Stance requires balance
Big difference between cynics and skeptics, cynics tend to be
gloomier.
Psychics – government and civil fascination
We seem collectively, to be a gullible nation
Book offer a skeptic tool kit – some below
Who is making the claim?
Who might benefit from belief in this claim?
What exactly is being claimed?
Can the claim be tested?
Defer to simpler explanations
Insist on extraordinary levels of proof for exceptional claims
Imagine alternative explanations
Remember that fraud is common
Remember that people can delude themselves
when possible, devise tests
What is skepticism?
People know that some skepticism is required. Going to buy the car
example. Here’s an honest looking fellow vs. I have heard that some
used car sales men sell you cars that don’t work, I better bring my
friend who knows about cars along
We are skeptical in some areas but, unfortunately, not in others.
Aspirin commercial example – this one has more medicine, buy it, not
the other one that has only half the miracle medicine – why not just
take two tablets of the other medicine?
Advertisements use deception to try and get use to buy things.
Stones as talismans
belief systems – change often and very quickly
Ramtha from 35,000 years ago
skepticism is dangerous, and that is why there is a great reluctance to
teach it in schools
balance of skepticism
humans find themselves superior to all other things, example of the
Earth and sun being the center of the universe
UFO’s and extraterrestrial life example, lame data
consider the evidence very carefully
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we do not teach how to think, this is a serious failure for a world rigged
with 60,000 nuclear weapons
fore fighting urban legend
urban legends are very widely believed
ether perfume attacks – spread news to family
9/11 conspiracy theory
gang lights example
Three types of info
copies of warnings
letters from people
reporting the warnings
further news stories
police denied it in several cities, but rumor still continued
huge- hit whole nation
people believed because family members had heard about it
stacking the deck for 9/11
logical fallacies all over the place
Didn’t ask the right questions
patent office example
again people paid attention to gossip, not evidence
no support in argument
making people feel good about themselves and smart by saying, this
person is bad, so more people believed it
not enough “detail” – like how you want a lie to as close to the truth as
possible
exam examples
cut corner
open book
blue book
letter to mom
flat tire
Alex Hayes history notes
13 billion to 200,000 years ago
 The big bag happened 13 billion years ago
 It took less then a second to happen
 Scientists think that there was no time or matter before the big bag
 300,000 years latter it cooled down enough for atoms of hydrogen and
helium to form
 These combined into huge stars
 The earliest living animals had only one cell and originated in the ocean
 The earth formed millions of years ago, but it was to hot for water
 The earth cooled down and water came to earth
 The first cells excreted oxygen
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The sun’s energy drives life
Evolution effected which cells could life
100,000,000 years ago animals moved out of the water and onto land
The dominant species was the dinosaurs
Mammals also came out of the water
The tree dwellers where the dominant mammals, primates
They had large brains, which aloud them to see in 3-d and process more
information
The hominids where our first ancestors
They evolved over time into early humans, in Africa
The hominids stood upright, instead of crawling like their ancestors
Our planet and sun where created 4.5 billion years ago
Hydrogen and helium formed into to stars, and then the stars, galaxies
The planets where created near the edge of the galaxy the milky way
Our sun was formed by a huge cloud of gas particles
The early earth was a violent place, always being bombarded by asteroids
Slowly the asteroids stopped falling as much and the earth began to cool
down
The first life was a group of highly organized complex chemicals, they
reacted with under water volcano explosions and became forms of life
As early as 3.5 billion years ago, animals began to get energy from
photosynthesis
The dinosaurs where the first to crawl out of the water, but them an
asteroid destroyed them and the reign of mammals started
Early human lived a lot like modern gorillas and apes
In family groups
Started in Africa but went all the way to China
They learned about fire and tools and began to become more like modern
humans
These apes had social structure, complex
“Political alliances” with other groups where part of the society and
showed complex brains and feelings
We can be sure that these students could calculate, had feelings, and
social relationships
A stone tool kit, fire and social organization allowed homo erectus to travel
the world
Knew about religion and art, carved a simple fire place
We are homo sapiens
12/31/08 11:58 – now on a calendar year – 200,000 years ago with humans
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Garrison Keillor example of simple but complex humanity – in one
sentence he captures humanness
A human cut tie to apes with knife and becomes free to do other things
Difference of human brain
Human brains are unique
We create art and complex machines
Brain as a CPU
Cerebral cortex is thought to be the perhaps the most complex entity
known to science
Relative brain size
Chimp – 300,400 - Homo Sapiens – 1200 to 1600 – cc
Size does not make you smarter
Human brain size could be the result of natural selection
Explains natural selection – be ready to
Mental disorders are named after the gene that is not working that
causes mental disorders