RPH: Historical Criticism NEUST BSBIO 1-A (2023-2024)

History ● Practice of historical writing

● Comes from the Greek word Historia ● An imaginative reconstruction of the past
(learning by inquiry) from the data derived from historical method
● According to Aristotle ● History of history
○ History is a systematic account of a
set of natural phenomena, whether Limitations of Historical Knowledge
or not chronological ordering was a ● Incompleteness of records has limited
factor in the account man’s knowledge of history
● Scientific investigation of past events ● History-as-actuality
○ Whole history of the past
Historians ● History-as-records
● Writers of past events ○ Surviving records and are only a tiny
part of the whole phenomenon
Sources / Sciences
● Archeology Verisimilitude
○ Artifacts ● Aim of the historians (truth, authenticity, and
○ Determination of life, culture, plausibility) about the past
customs, etc.
● Geology History
○ Location and landscapes ● Subjective process as documents and relics
● Linguist are scattered and do not comprise the total
○ Trace of language object that the historian is studying
● Scientist
○ Biologists and biochemists Historical Method
● Process of critically examining and
Types of History analyzing the records and survival of the
● Factual History past
○ History based on facts or what is
presented Historical Analysis
○ Answers the questions: what, when, ● Select the subject to investigate
where, and who ● Collect probable sources of information
○ Gives plain and basic information about the subject
about the event ● Examine the genuineness, in part of in
○ Presents the reader the plain and whole
basic information vis-a-vis or in ● Extract credible particulars from the source
relation to events that took place, as
well as settings and the people Historical Data
involved ● Sourced from artifacts that have been left by
● Speculative History the past
○ Answers the questions: how and ● Relics or remains
why ○ Artifacts that offers researchers a
○ Goes beyond the facts clue about the past
○ Concerned about the concept of ● Testimonies of witnesses
causality and the manner in which ○ Oral or written
the event happened ○ May have been created to serve as
records or some other purposes
Historiography
RPH: Historical Criticism
Historians deal with the:
● Dynamic or genetic
○ The becoming
● Static
○ The being
Historians aim at the:
● Interpretative
○ Explaining why and how things
happened and were interrelated
● Descriptive
○ Telling what happened, when,
where, and who took part
Written Sources of History
● Narrative or Literature
○ Chronicles or tracts presented in
narrative form
○ Written to impart a message
● Diplomatic Sources
○ Those which document record an
existing legal situation or create a
new one
○ Purest and best source
○ Government documents
● Social Documents
○ Information pertaining to economic,
social, political, or judicial
significance
○ Record kept by bureaucracies
○ Government reports and research
findings
Non-written sources of History
● Material evidence
○ Archeological evidence is one of the
most important unwritten evidence
○ Artistic creations: pottery and jewelry
● Oral evidence
○ Tales and sagas of people
○ Folk songs or popular rituals from
the premodern period of the
Philippine history
Primary Sources
NEUST BSBIO 1-A (2023-2024)
● First-hand information of an event or period
that are usually written or made during or
close to the event or period
● Original and factual
Secondary sources
● Materials made by people long after the
event has been described
● Analyzes and interprets primary source
Historical Criticism
● Examines the origins of the earliest text to
appreciate the underlying circumstances
upon which the text came to be
● Sensus literalis historicus
○ To discover the original meaning of
the text in its primitive or historical
context and its literal sense
To establish a reconstruction of the historical
situation of the author and recipients of the text
● Source criticism
○ Analyzes and studies the sources
used by biblical authors
● Form criticism
○ Seeks to determine a unit’s original
form and historical context of the
literary tradition
● Redaction criticism
○ Regards the author of the text as
editor of the source material
● Tradition criticism
○ Attempts to trace the development
stages of the oral tradition from its
historical emergence to its literary
presentation
● Canonical criticism
○ Focuses its interpretation of the bible
on the text of biblical canon