Some of the questions I am interested
in probing include—
·
What is history—a
stream of events, a set of interlocking processes, a narrative, a set of actors
with overlapping influences?
·
What is historical causation?
Are there social mechanisms that explain historical change?
·
Is there such a thing as
“historical necessity”? What would
this be? Is there “inevitability” or “necessity” in history? What is the scope
of contingency in historical change?
·
What is a historical
narrative?
·
Are there
generalizations in history? Are there social laws? Are there large recurring
factors in history that play an important explanatory role in many distinct
settings?
·
What range of
interpretative “under-determination” exists in historical inquiry?
·
Is there such a thing as
“objective historical knowledge” or “factual historical knowledge”?
·
What assumptions do
historians make about the nature of structures, entities, and processes in
historical phenomena (modes of production, economic systems, revolutions,
riots, wars)?
·
What is the relationship
between agency and structure in historical explanation?
·
How do ideas and
mentalités play in historical change?
·
How do comparisons
function in historical writing?
·
Is there an important
role for comparative method in historical inquiry (e.g. economic development in
Western Europe and East Asia)?
·
Can we give a
middle-range description of the logic of historical assertions and inquiry?
·
What is a historical
process?
·
What can comparative
historical research tell us about large historical change?
·
Are there grounds for
defining the scope of historical analysis—period, region?
·
Are there historical
epochs?
·
What is the role of
theory and hypothesis in historical analysis? How do social science and social
theory play roles in historical explanation?
·
How do historical events
and structures hang together—what constitutes the unity or identity of a
complex historical event (French revolution, White Lotus rebellion)?
·
Are there similar large
historical processes in separate regions?
·
What is the relationship
between the micro and macro levels of historical inquiry?
·
What is a “social
structure” and how does it acquire causal powers?
·
Do “perspective” and
“orientation” play a role in historical interpretation and analysis?
·
What are the dimensions
of uncertainty in historical research and inquiry?
·
What is bias? Interest, situation.
·
What issues arise in
linking available historical evidence to historical interpretations?