History ethics
Under History Ethics refers to a branch of applied ethics that deals with problems of moral proper handling of history or historians busy and their methods. In connection with this, ethics of history seeks answers to the question to what extent preoccupation with history is a moral issue at all . In general, the concept of historical ethics can be defined as follows:
"Historical ethics describes and justifies values and norms that arise in connection with historical research , the processing of its results and their reception ."
The ethics of history also justifies the preoccupation with history: different, theoretical images or theories of history assign people different points of view in history (e.g. as a passive object or active subject).
From a historical ethical point of view, historical material (sources, remains) can be dealt with responsibly, doubtfully or very critically, for example in the case of Heinrich Schliemann .
The intention of dealing with history is often difficult. Should z. If, for example, history is used in schools as a means of building legends or nations (founding myths), this constitutes a violation of honest principles of historical ethics. This area also includes the problem of so-called commitments : every person who deals with history does so under certain personal or cultural conditions that lead to more or less strong, sometimes dangerous pre-interpretations and distortions of interpretation.
Historical ethics also deals with various fields of responsibility of historians (e.g. in education and specialist didactics : to have a critical and constructive influence on the design of educational plans or training standards ; also to raise uncomfortable questions, e.g., to raise questions about national myths).
Finally, history itself or its reception can also be dealt with in an ethically responsible or inappropriate manner - for example if there is a suspicion that history is being instrumentalized (e.g. Paulskirchen speech by Martin Walser ).
literature
- Christoph Kühberger / Clemens Sedmak: Ethics of historical science. For the introduction. 1st edition, Vienna 2008, ISBN 978-3-85132-480-8 .
- Ernst Troeltsch: Ethics and Philosophy of History. Weinheim 1995, ISBN 3-89547-090-2 .
- Karl-Christian Weber: Ethically reflective history lessons. Competence-oriented basics and examples. 1st edition, Göttingen 2013, ISBN 978-3-8252-3862-9 .
Individual evidence
- ^ Karl-Christian Weber: Ethically reflective history lessons. Competence-oriented basics and examples, 1st edition, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht (UTB), Göttingen 2013, p. 114.
- ↑ Karl-Christian Weber (2013), pp. 122–125.
- ^ Christoph Kühberger / Clemens Sedmak: Ethics of the historical science. Introduction, 1st edition Vienna: Thuria + Kant 2008, pp. 75–94.
- ↑ Further examples cf. Karl-Christian Weber (2013), p. 129.