This document outlines the agenda and activities for a Theory of Knowledge class focusing on historical method. It includes an activity where students verbally relay an account of an event to demonstrate how details can be lost or altered over transmission. The document then covers core principles of history, different approaches to history through time in various cultures, and potential patterns and uses of history. It poses discussion questions about the nature of history, objectivity, and the relationship between history and other areas of knowledge.

1. TOK Ch. 6, p. 211-236
Team 1: 211-215
Team 2: 216-220
Team 3: 221-225
Team 4: 226-230
Team 5: 231-233
Team 6: 233-236
Week 7: Historical Method
PP: Team 1-3: Georg
Hegel
Team 4-6: Michel Foucault
AIO: Just War Theory

2. Where are we Going?
• Activity: Telephone
– Defining History through
transmission and reliability
• Core Principles
– External and Internal
Criticism
– Thesis, Anti-Thesis, Synthesis
• History of… History
– Ancient
– Western
– Non-Western
– Enlightenment
• People v. Events
• Cyclical v. Linear
• History as Propaganda
• History and Education

3. Activity: History Telephone
• Teams of four
1. Each Student chooses an
important event from the
week and writes a detailed
account (dates, etc.)
2. With a partner, trade
accounts verbally and from
memory (do not read it). Do
not show your writing.
3. Trade partners, tell your
previous partner’s account.
4. Write down your second
partner’s account.
5. Compare to original account.
What was left out? Inserted?
Errors?

4. He who controls
the present,
controls the past.
He who controls
the past, controls
the future

5. Historical Method Vocabulary
• Historiography
• Metacognition
• Historical Method
• Social Evolutionism
• Cycle Theory
• Criticism
• Objectivity v.
Subjectivity
• Synthesis
• Revisionism
• Teleology

6. Questions to Consider
• Can one have
sufficient knowledge
of an event without
direct, sensory
experience?
• Is all knowledge
historical in nature
(residing in the past)?
• How does history
interact with the
other areas of
knowing?

7. Core Principles of History
• Olden-Jørgensen (1998) and
Thurén (1997)
1. Human Sources: Relics or
Narratives. Relics are more
credible.
2. Any source may be
corrupted. Originality
increases reliability
3. Proximity in time/space to
even increases accuracy.
4. Primary > Secondary
Sources
5. Number of independent
sources increase credibility
6. Sources are created with
bias. Supplemented with
opposite motivations.
7. Less direct interest of
witness or source increases
credibility

8. External and Internal Criticism
1. When was the
source, written or
unwritten, produced
(date)?
2. Where was it produced
(localization)?
3. By whom was it produced
(authorship)?
4. From what pre-existing
material was it produced
(analysis)?
5. In what original form was it
produced (integrity)?
6. What is the evidential
value of its contents
(credibility)?

9. Timeline of Historical Thought
• Hellenic
– 5th c. : Herodotus writes on the actions and
characters of men. Focus on Divine
determination of historical events
– 4TH c. : Poleis histories from local historians,
including lists (Olympics) and civic records.
• Thucydides writes on Athenian/Spartan war using
rationalistic elements, as well as distinguishing cause
and origin.
• Xenophon creates character narratives
• Roman
– 3rd C.: Polybius on the rise of Rome
– 2nd c.: Latin replaces Greek tradition. Julius
Caesar, Cicero, and Cato the Elder
introduce political thought and
autobiography
– 1st c.: Plutarch, Suetonius, and Tacitus
introduce biography as branch of history

10. Timeline of Historical Thought
• Chinese
– 8th c.: Annals of
Confucius
– 7th-5th c.: Zuo Zhuan
as narrative history
– 3rd-1st c.: Zhan Guo
Ce as historical of
war. Sima Qian and
the Shiji

11. Timeline of Historical Thought
• Christendom
– 1st c. : Luke-Acts and the
Apostolic Age
– 2nd-3rd c.: NT
canon, Constantine I
• Emphasis on written sources
over oral histories
• Shift from initially from politics
to religion and society
• Eusebius’ Ecclesiastical History
– 4th-10th c.: Middle Ages
chronicles and annals
– 13th c.: Renaissance
focus on states and
nations

12. Timeline of Historical Thought
• Islamic
– 7th c.: Focus on Hadith and
Muhammads life
– 9th – 13th c. : al-Tabari and Birujni
development of comprehensive
world history and Indology
• Developed archeological
methodology to study ancient
cultures
– 14th -15th c. : Ibn Khaldun
developed first historiograhpical
study
• Rise and fall of nations
• Observations of the roles of the state
in history
• Rational principles governing
interpretation of past events

13. Timeline of Historical Thought
• Modern Era
– 18th c. : Enlightenment, Whig School
• Voltaire: emphasis on spirit of nations and
local customs
• “My chief object is not political or military
history, it is the history of the arts, of
commerce, of civilization – in a word: of the
human mind”
• Critical of theological, emphasizing
economics, culture and political History
– 19th c. : Scientific Method, Annales
School
• Critical approach, focus on politics and
diplomacy (rejecting cultural themes of
Voltaire)
• Hard sources, not speculation or
rationalization.
• Hegel: focus on “dialectic clash” between
thesis, antithesis and synthesis.
• Darwin and Social Evolutionism

14. Timeline of Historical Thought
• Modern Era
– 20th c.: Marxist school and
class struggle to history
• Materialist history
– Annales School: shift away
from individual subjects to
geography, climatology and
demography.
– 21st c.: Nayef Al-Rodhan and
“Sustainable History” as part
of an analysis of geo-cultural
global politics.

15. Cyclical or Linear?
• Is history an analysis
of time paralleling
the science of
time?
• Is history an analysis
of patterns
throughout time
that repeat towards
understanding
present/future?

16. People or Events?
• Is history a study of
important people
who influence events
and cause change in
society?
• Is history a study of
important events.
What defines
“important”. What
quality do these
events take (positive
or negative?)

17. History as Propaganda
• How is history
effected by the
dominance of one
sub-culture to
another?
• Is history always
written by the victors?
How does one
determine history
when competing
accounts exist?

18. Originalism vs. Revisionism
• A form of cycle
theory in histiography
• “today’s winners will
be tomorrow’s losers”
• Consider American
Indian, Slave
tradition, and
modern Ethnic,
Feminist, and LGBTQ
studies.

23. TOK Questions
• Citing specific
examples, analyze the quote:
“History tells us more about the
person who wrote it than about
the people being written
about” . Reference at least
two areas of knowing and two
ways of knowing.
• How does one’s historical
“lens” into the past affect both
the educational use, and the
political use, of history in the
present?
• What teleology, if any, exists in
the potential patterns of
history? Reference two areas
of knowing.

24. Reading Discussion
• TOK Ch. 6, p. 211-236
– Give a brief overview of your
section with reference to page
numbers.
– Decide on the 5 specific and
important TOK observations
from your section. Avoid
menial facts.
– Develop a Problem of
Knowledge question from your
section.
– Is it something you would want
to research in the future? Does
it affect your extended essay or
TOK assessment focus?

25. History and Education
• Focus on Civic instruction:
how is historical
education important to
the general polis, and
how does it impact good
citizenry?
• How are textbooks
developed, revised,
selected, and
administered to students?
• How is the starkness of the
past often filtered
towards age appropriate
or other goal-oriented
approach?

26. TOK Questions
• Citing specific
examples, analyze the quote:
“History tells us more about the
person who wrote it than about
the people being written
about” . Reference at least
two areas of knowing and two
ways of knowing.
• How does one’s historical
“lens” into the past affect both
the educational use, and the
political use, of history in the
present?
• What teleology, if any, exists in
the potential patterns of
history? Reference two areas
of knowing.

39. TOK Questions
• Citing specific
examples, analyze the quote:
“History tells us more about the
person who wrote it than about
the people being written
about” . Reference at least
two areas of knowing and two
ways of knowing.
• How does one’s historical
“lens” into the past affect both
the educational use, and the
political use, of history in the
present?
• What teleology, if any, exists in
the potential patterns of
history? Reference two areas
of knowing.

40. History Socratic Seminar
• Using one of the
three TOK questions,
complete the
following:
– Select an appropriate
and controversial
historical event.
– Select at least two
areas of knowing
beyond the historical.
– Present a peer-
reviewed article on
the topic for discussion
from these areas of
knowing.