Historicity is the historical actuality of persons and events, meaning the quality of being part of
history
History is the systematic study of the past, focusing primarily on the Human history, human past. As an academic discipline, it analyses and interprets evidence to construct narratives about what happened and explain why it happened. Some t ...
instead of being a historical
myth,
legend
A legend is a genre of folklore that consists of a narrative featuring human actions, believed or perceived to have taken place in human history. Narratives in this genre may demonstrate human values, and possess certain qualities that give the ...
, or
fiction
Fiction is any creative work, chiefly any narrative work, portraying character (arts), individuals, events, or setting (narrative), places that are imagination, imaginary or in ways that are imaginary. Fictional portrayals are thus inconsistent ...
. The historicity of a claim about the past is its factual status. Historicity denotes historical actuality, authenticity, factuality and focuses on the true value of knowledge claims about the past.
Some theoreticians characterize historicity as a dimension of all natural phenomena that take place in space and time. Other scholars characterize it as an attribute reserved to certain human occurrences, in agreement with the practice of
historiography.
[Jones, Michael S.,]
Lucian Blaga, The Historical Phenomenon: An Excerpt from The Historical Being
(2012). Faculty Publications and Presentations. Paper 1. Herbert Marcuse explained historicity as that which "defines history and thus distinguishes it from 'nature' or the 'economy'" and "signifies the meaning we intend when we say of something that is 'historical'." The ''Blackwell Dictionary of Western Philosophy'' defines historicity as "denoting the feature of our human situation by which we are located in specific concrete temporal and historical circumstances".
For
Wilhelm Dilthey, historicity identifies human beings as unique and concrete historical beings.
Questions regarding historicity concern not just the issue of "what really happened", but also how modern observers can come to know "what really happened". This second issue is closely tied to historical research practices and methodologies for analyzing the reliability of
primary sources and other evidence. Because various methodologies thematize historicity differently, it is not possible to reduce historicity to a single structure to be represented. Some methodologies like
historicism can make historicity subject to constructions of history based on submerged value commitments.
[Hall, J. (2007). ''Historicity and Sociohistorical Research.'' In W. Outhwaite, & S. Turner (Eds.), ''The Sage Handbook of Social Science Methodology.'' (pp. 82–102). London: Sage Publications Ltd. ][Hall, J. (2007). ''History, Methodologies, and the Study of Religion.'' In J. Beckford, & N. Demerath (Eds.), ''The SAGE Handbook of the Sociology of Religion'' (pp. 167–189). London: Sage Publications Ltd. ] The historiographer
François Hartog introduced the notion of regimes of historicity to describe a society that considers its past and attempts to deal with it, a process that is also cited as "a method of self-awareness in a human community". The historicity of a reported event may be distinct from the historicity of persons involved in the event. For example, a popular story says that as a child,
George Washington
George Washington (, 1799) was a Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father and the first president of the United States, serving from 1789 to 1797. As commander of the Continental Army, Washington led Patriot (American Revoluti ...
chopped down a cherry tree, and when confronted about it, honestly took responsibility for the act. Although there is no doubt that Washington existed as a historical figure, the historicity of this specific account has been found lacking.
Questions of historicity are particularly relevant to
partisan or
poetic accounts of past events. For example, the
historicity of the ''Iliad'' has become a topic of debate because later archaeological finds suggest that the work was based on some true event.
Questions of historicity frequently arise in relation to historical
studies of religion. In these cases, value commitments can influence the choice of research
methodology.
See also
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Historicity of the Bible
**
Historicity of Jesus
**
Historicity of the canonical Gospels
**
Historicism (Christian eschatology), a specific brand of
Biblical literalism
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Historicity of Muhammad
*
Historicity of Rama
*
Historicity of the Book of Mormon
*
Historicism
*
Historical method
*
Historicity of King Arthur
*
Historicity of William Tell
*
Historicity of Robin Hood
*
Historicity of Ragnar Lodbrok
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Historicity of Laozi
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Parallelomania
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Temporality
References
External links
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{{Authority control
Historiography