偏见抑或洞见:海登·怀特论英国史家及其思想

Prejudice or Insight: Hayden White on British Historians and Their Thoughts

海登•怀特早年受柯林武德、汤因比、克里斯托弗•道森等史家影响,但19世纪英国史家为何未成为《元史学:19世纪欧洲的历史想象》研讨对象?这一疑问既涉及英国史学及史家,又关乎怀特理论中的基本假设。英国辉格派史学的变迁向历史学家提出反思历史学的性质、对象、方法和价值等知识论问题,也激发了怀特探讨英国史家批判实证主义的理论兴趣。怀特一方面以反讽为路径阐述了19世纪欧洲历史意识由科学的客观性向认识论的怀疑主义蜕变;另一方面,以历史主义为线索构建了19世纪欧洲历史意识三个不同阶段,而英国却付之阙如。究其根源,19世纪的英国史家仍未产生系统探讨历史知识的兴趣。

In Hayden White’s early years,he was influenced by historians such as Collingwood,Toynbee,and Christopher Dawson.But why did the British historians of the 19 th century not be the object of discussion in Metahistory:Historical Imagination in Nineteenth-Century Europe?This question concerns both British historiography and historians,as well as the basic assumptions in White’s theory.The changes of British Whig historiography make historians to reflect on epistemological issues such as the nature,object,method and value of history,which also stimulated White’s theoretical interest in exploring critical positivism of British historians.On the one hand,White used irony as the path to explain the historical awareness from scientific objectivity to epistemological skepticism through irony.On the other hand,he used historicism as a clue to construct three different stages of 19 th-century European historical awareness,which Britain lacked.At the root of the problem,English historians in 19 th century had no systematic interest in exploring historical knowledge systematically.