Beyond sciences in historical theory?: Critical commentary on the history/science distinction

Abstract

Can and should the methodology of history be merged with that of social science? The conference session in which most of the papers in this issue were presented was billed as dealing with substantive issues concerning this issue of the interplay between historical research - and writing - and the sciences. This is an age-old topic, of course, concerning a fundamental issue discussed by the philosophers of history and social science of the past century or two. In the centre of the proposed discussions the organizers wished to place the following important questions:Which science and which specific scientific methods have been, at different times, the positive model for history, or, as the case may be, a challenge to which historical research and writing must be beware?How would a natural-scientific perspective, such as that of 'evolutionary psychology', change what historians say about historical processes? Have non-European traditions of historical thinking experienced similar and comparable confrontations?