subject: What is history? [print this page] For a long time the story was seen not as a science, but applies to literature and art. No accident that in Greek mythology, the patroness of history was considered one of the muses, depicted as a young woman with inspired face and with a scroll of papyrus or parchment in hand, name-Clio muse of history - comes from the Greek word for "praise". And indeed, the first chronicle, chronicles, biographies devoted primarily the glorification of rulers.
So, what is history? The word "history" is borrowed from Greek, where the so-called narrative of events (1). The notion that such a story and what it should do, historically evolved.
In today's world of historical literature there are a variety of definition of the subject of history, right up to the diametrically opposite (there are up to 30 definitions of the subject of history as a science). Defining the subject of history connected with the worldview of the historian, his philosophical views.
Historians, standing on the materialist position, believe that the history of how science is exploring the specific, limited to certain space-time outside the laws of social development issues associated with human activities.
Dominant in the western ("bourgeois") Science conviction is that the main object of study in the history of a people. The famous French historian Marc Bloch has defined history as "the science of human beings in time", and comes to the fore the spiritual side of human activity, considering that the subject of history "in the strict sense, and last - people's minds."
Significant differences between scientists of different concepts relate not only to define the subject of history, but also explain the historical process.
In the Marxist historical-materialist conception of the ultimate cause and the crucial driving force behind all the major historical events, the process is considered work, production, mode of production. It is also recognized and specific in the historical process - the historical conditions (class struggle, relations with other countries, geographical and other features, etc.) as well as a unit - the activity of historical figures.
Among the "bourgeois" concepts of a widespread pluralistic interpretation of history, when it is not recognized as a common cause of historical development, but it is believed that in a society are many factors of different ranks, which are governed by diverse interests of various social organizations and groups.
On what would have ideological positions or were historians, all they use in their research scientific apparatus, certain scientific categories. Foremost among them is the category of "historical time". In this category, any event can measure the temporal and spatial characteristics. And the history as a process - it is not just the set of adjacent point-events, namely the movement from event to event.
