His t o r i ca l
Cr i t i
L c
e s s i
o ns2 m s
Objectives
• Provide ideas that guide the discipline of
history
2. Develop critical and analytical skills with
exposure to primary sources
3. Evaluate primary sources for their credibility,
authenticity and provenance
4. Opportunities to improve critical thinking
Contents
A. Definition of Historical Criticism
B. Additional Goal of Historical Criticism
C. External Criticism
D. Test of Authenticity
E. Internal Criticism
F. Test of Credibility
A. Definition
Goals...
What is historical criticism? (1) to discover the texts’
Also known as the
historical-critical method,
primitive or original historical
historicism or higher context and its literal sense.
It is a branch of
criticism
criticism that (2) seeks to establish a
reconstruction of the historical
investigates the origin
situation of the author and
or source of text in
recipients of the text.
order to understand the
word behind the text.
f ak e ? Where'
i c h is s the
Wh
fact?
A. Definition
2 Types of historical criticism
In order for the source to be used as evidence in history, basic
matters about its form and context must be settled.
External criticism Internal criticism
- investigates the - investigates the
documents’ form content of the
documents
- aims to find out the
authenticity of the - aims to establish the
document credibility of the content
B. Additional Goal of Historical Criticism
- seeks greater understanding of the
texts by analyzing the historical
and social contexts in which they
developed.
B. Additional Goal of Historical Criticism
-traditionally, to understand the text’s meaning in its
original context and to answer questions about
the text, such as:
• Who wrote it?
• When was it written?
• What else was happening at the time of its writing?
• How did it come to be in the form we have it today?
• What did it mean to the people who first read or
heard it?
B. Additional Goal of Historical Criticism
- sought answers to the
ever-elusive question of “authorial
intent”:
What did the author intend for this
text to mean in his or her time and
place?
C. External Criticism
• looks for • tests the • is interested • The historian • Since external
the in the writing also analyzes criticism is
authentic the original concerned with the
obvious styles of the
ity of the manuscript; its explicit sign of
eyewitness
sign of integrity, misrepresentation,
sources. and his localization, it is the first test the
forgery or
ignorance of and the date it historian employ to
misreprese the facts. was written.
ascertain sources
validity.
ntation.
C. External Criticism
• looks for the
obvious sign of
forgery or
misrepresentation.
C. External Criticism
• tests the
authenticity
of the
sources.
C. External Criticism
• is interested in
the writing
styles of the
eyewitness and
his ignorance of
the facts.
C. External Criticism
• analyzes the
original
manuscript; its
integrity,
localization, and
the date it was
written.
C. External Criticism
• analyzes the
original
manuscript; its
integrity,
localization, and
the date it was
To ascertain if a particular data is fabricated, forged, fake, corrupted or a
written.
hoax, that source must undergo the test of authenticity.
C. External Criticism
Since external • It is the first test
criticism is concerned
the historian
with the explicit sign of
employs to
misrepresentation...
ascertain
sources'
validity.
D. Test of Authenticity
Authenticity
- the state of being
legitimate and true
D. Test of Authenticity
First step: Determine the date of document to see
whether it is anachronistic
Anachronism means out of time or order, something
that could not have been there at that particular time.
Being able to spot anachronism is important because it helps us test the reliability of a source. If
a source is unreliable then we probably should not use it.
Is the source consistent with the historical period, and
other related historical sources?
Rizal's
allegedly first
poem
D. Test of Authenticity
Second step: Determine the author’s handwriting,
signature or seal.
Example: comparing the handwriting of particular author
to his other writings.
Obvious signs of forgery:
• patch writing
• hesitation as revealed by ink blobs
• pauses in the writing
• tremor causing poor line quality and erasures
Alleged retraction letter of Jose Rizal
D. Test of Authenticity
Third step: Look for anachronistic style. Examine
idiomatic expressions or the orthography used in the
documents.
An idiom is an expression, word or phrase that has a
figurative meaning conventionally understood by native
speakers.
For example: ‘break a leg’ - means good luck.
Orthography is a set of conventions for writing a language.
It includes norms of spelling, hyphenation, capitalization,
word breaks, emphasis and punctuation.
When the poem "Sa Aking Mga Kabata" was allegedly written in 1869, most Philippine
language was widely written in a variety of ways based on Spanish Orthography:
Early Tagalog
System Modern Filipino
Orthography
Ama namin, Ama namin, sumasalangit
nasa Lan͠gitca, Ka,
Ypasamba Mo ang Sambahín ang Ngalan Mo.
N͠galanmo. Mapasaamin ang kaharián
Mouisaamin ang
Mo.
pagcaharimo.
Sundín ang loób Mo
Ypasonor mo ang loob mo
Dito sa lupà, para nang sa
Dito sa lupa para sa Lan͠git.
langit.
D. Test of Authenticity
Fourth Test: Anachronistic reference to events
Example, an event cited in the document
happened prior to the actual time period.
e.g.
1944
D. Test of Authenticity
Fifth Test: Provenance or custody of the document
Provenance - the place of origin of earliest known
history of documents
It traces the roots of any source.
e.g.
Other two test of
authenticity
• Semantics
• Hermeneutics
Semantics
• linguistic study of meaning
• determines the meaning of the text and
words of the source
• We may ask: “Is the meaning of the
statements different from its literal
meaning?”
Hermeneutics
• theory and methodology of interpretation
• is more than interpretation or method used
when immediate comprehension fails.
In historical criticism we determine ambiguities which are a
word or expression that can be understood in two or more
possible ways. Historians may look also if the statement is
meant to be ironic (i.e. mean other than what it says).
E. Internal Criticism
• looks for • has to do • investigates • also • tests the
deeper or with what the content investigates credibility
more intense the or the of the
study of document substance author's
source
sources of a
says point of
document view
E. Internal Criticism
Historians first apply • looks for ...because of the
external criticism deeper or implicit character of
before undergoing the more intense internal criticisms
test of credibility...
study of
sources
E. Internal Criticism
The document must
• refers to the
be very similar or as
close as what really accuracy of
happened from a the
critical examination of
best available
document
resources.
E. Internal Criticism
• has to do
with what
the
document
says
E. Internal Criticism
• investigates
the content or
substance of a
document and
the author's
point of view
E. Internal Criticism
• tests the
credibility of
the source
F. Test of Credibility
Credibility
- the quality of being trusted,
believed in, or convincing
F. Test of Credibility
First step: Identification of the author
- determine if the witness is reliable or if he is
consistent by comparing his other works.
- examine the mental processes of the witness, if
he is capable of telling the truth, or if he is mentally
challenge.
- look for his personal attitudes, if he is telling
something beyond what he saw or bragging about
it.
F. Test of Credibility
Second step: Determine the approximate date
- Example: Rizal’s poem “Sa aking mga kabata”
F. Test of Credibility
Third step: Test the source's ability to tell the truth
Historians..
- examine
. how near an eyewitness is to the event.
to give an accurate historical description of what actually
happened
- look for the competence of the eyewitness
(author's education, health, age or social status)
- test the degree of the attention of the eyewitness.
F. Test of Credibility
Fourth step: Test the source's willingness to tell the
truth.
If the eyewitness is coerced, forced or somebody
threaten him to tell something then his account is
not valid.
F. Test of Credibility
Last step: Look for corroboration
This rest upon the independent testimony of two or
more reliable sources.
For instance, if the soldier who fought the battle, a
general who oversaw the battle and a doctor
who treated those wounded who fought the battle,
all recorded the same fact or all agree about an
event, historians consider that event proven.
Th a nk
you