HISTORICAL CRITICISM

What is Historical Criticism?

In order for a source to be used as evidence in history, basics about its form at
content must be settled must be settled.

1. External Criticism
2. Internal Criticism

What is External Criticism?

 The problem of authenticity

 To spot fabricated, faked, forged documents
 To distinguish hoax or misinterpretation

TEST OF AUTHENTICITY

1. Determine the date of the document whether they are anachronistic.

e.g. pencils did not exist before 16th century.

2. Determine the author

e.g handwriting, signature, seal

3. Anachronistic style
e.g idiom, orthography, punctuation

4. Anachronistic to events
e.g too early, too late, too remote

5. Provenance or custody
- determines its genuineness

6. Semantics – determining the meaning of a text or word.

7. Hermeneutics – determining ambiguities
INTERNAL CRITICISM

- The problem of credibility

- Relevant particulars in the document – is it credible?
- Verisimilar – as close as what really happened from a critical examination of
best available sources.

TEST OF CREDIBILITY

1. Identification of the author

e.g to determine his reliability; mental processes, personal attitudes.

2. Determine the approximate dates

3. Ability to tell truth – nearness to the event, competence of witness, degree of
attention.
4. Willingness to the truth – to determine if the author consciously or
unconsciously tells falsehoods.
5. Corrobation – i.e historical facts – particular which rests upon the
independent testimony of two or more reliable witnesses.

THREE MAJOR COMPONENTS TO EFFECTIVE HISTORICAL

THINKING

1. Sensitivity to Multiple Causation

2. Sensitivity to Context
3. Awareness of interplay of continuity and change in human affairs.