Historical Judgement

Jonathan Gorman advances current philosophy of historiography by analysing the nature of historical judgement, both factual and moral. In doing so, he addresses the essential modern and postmodern problems of historical understanding and the ethics of the writing of history. Many historians are averse to historical theory but this book argues persuasively for a historiography-friendly philosophical response, one that shows how to model historiography in a philosophical way by analysing the metaphilosophical and historiographical developments in the philosophy of other disciplines.

Gorman explores what historians conceive of as characterizing their discipline, in particular their views about truth-telling, synthesis of facts, moral judgement, and the history of historiography. Gorman also presents the ideas of philosophers who have thought about history. In bringing the ideas of historians and philosophers together, Gorman provides one of the most important new statements in the philosophy of history to be written in recent years.