历史解释的性质——思辨历史哲学和分析历史哲学不同的历史解释

The Nature of Historical Explanation The Difference between Speculative Philosophy of History and Analytical Philosophy of History on Historical Explanation

通常,历史哲学指的是两个截然不同但又不可割裂的分支,一个分支是试图在事件的进程中,或在历史进程的一般性质中发现某些意义或重要性,另一个分支是对历史研究进行哲学分析,即对历史学家所从事的工作进行逻辑的、概念的和认识论的概括。在当代文献中,这两个分支分别被称为“思辨的历史哲学”与“分析(或批判)的历史哲学”。对思辨的历史哲学和分析历史哲学的代表人物进行分析,可以探讨出思辨历史哲学和分析历史哲学在解释历史方面的区别,说明解释在历史研究中的不同性质和重要意义。

Generally speaking, the philosophy of history includes two entirely different and inseparable branches. One is attempting to find some meaning or importance in the process of event or in general nature of the course of history, the other is philosophical criticism on historical study, which means summarizing logically,conceptually and cognitively historians' work . In modern documents, these two branches are called 'speculative philosophy of history'and 'analytical philosophy of history'. The essay is to analyze representative figures of speculative philosophy of history and analytical philosophy of history, investigating the difference in historical explanation between them and illustrating the nature and important significance of explanation in historical study.