批判与构建:论理性史学的历史主义

Criticism and Construction:On the Historicism of Rational Historiography

理性史学是指14世纪至18世纪文艺复兴时期与启蒙运动时期的欧洲史学。理性史学认为,历史是人类自身的向善活动,其特征就是不断地进步,而其动力就是理性;历史学的研究对象是人类的活动,其任务是揭示人类进步的原因,其性质属于科学;历史认识的基石是事实,其方式为线性时间,其方法是因果分析。理性史学的孕育、生长与成熟,标志着西方资产阶级历史主义的正式确立,也标志着西方历史学从中世纪宗教神学向现代化迈出了第一步。

Rational historiography refers to the European history of the Renaissance and the Enlightenment eras from the fourteenth century to the eighteenth century. Rational historiography believes that history is made by hu-man beings in pursuit of truth, virtue and beauty, whose hallmarks lie in making continuous progress and whose driving force lies in its being rational. The object of history studies is human activities, whose task is to reveal the cause of human progress. As a branch of science, historical understanding should be factually based, with linear time being the mode of understanding and causal analysis being the chief analytical method. The birth, growth and maturity of rational historiography marks the formal establishment of Western bourgeois historicism and signifies the first step of Western history moving from medieval religious theology toward modernization.