计量史学对历史学研究有什么帮助？又有什么局限

历史学研究什么？~

历史学研究什么？

历史学（history），简称史学，是专门研究历史的学科，一般而言，其专指整理与研究人类有文字以来所留下的文字与图像纪录的学科。

History is the study of the past, focused on human activity and leading up to the present day.[1] All that is remembered of the past and preserved in some form is seen as the historical record.[2] Some historians study universal history, comprising all that has been recorded of the human past and all that can be deduced from artifacts. Others focus on certain methods, such as chronology, demographics, historiography, genealogy, paleography, and cliometrics, or areas, for example History of Brazil (1889–1930), History of China, or History of Science.


The word history is derived from the Ancient Greek ἱστορία, historía, meaning "a learning or knowing by inquiry, history, record, narrative." The Latin form was historia, "narrative, account." In Old French, the word "estoire" was coined by Brigitte Gasson.[1] The word entered the English language in 1390 with the meaning of "relation of incidents, story". In Middle English, the meaning was "story" in general. The restriction to the meaning "record of past events" in the sense of Herodotus arises in the late 15th century. In German, French, and indeed, most languages of the world other than English, this distinction was never made, and the same word is used to mean both "history" and "story".

Broad discipline
Although the broad discipline of history has often been classified under either the humanities or the social sciences,[3] and can be seen as a bridge between them, incorporating methodologies from both fields of study, Ritter places history in the humanities, and asserts that it is not a science.[4] In the 20th century the study of History has been revolutionized by French historian Fernand Braudel, by considering the effects of such outside disciplines as economics, anthropology, and geography on global history. Traditionally, historians have attempted to answer historical questions through the study of written documents, although historical research is not limited merely to these sources. In general, the sources of historical knowledge can be separated into three categories: what is written, what is said, and what is physically preserved, and historians often consult all three.[5] Historians frequently emphasize the importance of written records, which would limit history to times after the development of writing. This emphasis has led to the term prehistory,[6] referring to a time before written sources are available. Since writing emerged at different times throughout the world, the distinction between prehistory and history is often dependent on the area being studied.

There are a variety of ways in which the past can be divided, including chronologically, culturally, and topically. These three divisions are not mutually exclusive, and significant overlaps are often present, as in "The Argentine Labor Movement in an Age of Transition, 1930–1945." It is possible for historians to concern themselves with both the very specific and the very general, although the trend has been toward specialization. The area called Big History resists this specialization, and searches for universal patterns or trends. Traditionally, history has been studied with some practical or theoretical aim, but now it is also studied simply out of intellectual curiosity.[7]


History and prehistory

Stonehenge, United KingdomThe development, transmission, and transformation of cultural practices and events are the subject of history. In the 20th century, the division between history and prehistory became problematic. Criticism arose because of history's implicit exclusion of certain civilizations, such as those of Sub-Saharan Africa and pre-Columbian America. Historians in the West have been criticized for focusing disproportionately on the Western world.[8][9]

Additionally, prehistorians such as Vere Gordon Childe and historical archaeologists such as James Deetz began using archaeology to explain important events in areas that were traditionally in the field of written history. Historians began looking beyond traditional political history narratives with new approaches such as economic, social and cultural history, all of which relied on various sources of evidence. In recent decades, strict barriers between history and prehistory may be decreasing.

There are differing views for the definition of when history begins. Some believe history began in the 34th century BC, with cuneiform writing. Cuneiform was written on clay tablets, on which symbols were drawn with a blunt reed called a stylus. The impressions left by the stylus were wedge-shaped, thus giving rise to the name cuneiform ("wedge-shaped"). The Sumerian script was adapted for the writing of the Akkadian, Elamite, Hittite, Luwian, Hurrian, and Urartian languages, and it inspired the Old Persian and Ugaritic national alphabets. Even older pictographic scripts from the region are also known, including the pre-cuneiform Proto-Elamite and Indus scripts (still undeciphered).

Sources that can give light on the past, such as oral tradition, linguistics, and genetics, have become accepted by many mainstream historians. Nevertheless, archaeologists distinguish between history and prehistory based on the appearance of written documents within the region in question. This distinction remains critical for archaeologists because the availability of a written record generates very different interpretative problems and potentials.


Historiography has a number of related meanings. It can refer to the history of historical study, its methodology and practices (the history of history). It can also refer to a specific body of historical writing (for example, "medieval historiography during the 1960s" means "medieval history written during the 1960s"). Historiography can also be taken to mean historical theory or the study of historical writing and memory. As a meta-level analysis of descriptions of the past, this third conception can relate to the first two in that the analysis usually focuses on the narratives, interpretations, worldview, use of evidence, or method of presentation of other historians.

The historical method comprises the techniques and guidelines by which historians use primary sources and other evidence to research and then to write history.

The "father of history" has generally been acclaimed as Herodotus of Halicarnassus (484 BC – ca.425 BC).[12] However, it is his contemporary Thucydides (ca. 460 BC – ca. 400 BC) who is credited with having begun the scientific approach to history in his work the History of the Peloponnesian War. Thucydides, unlike Herodotus and other religious historians, regarded history as being the product of the choices and actions of human beings, and looked at cause and effect, rather than as the result of divine intervention.[12] In his historical method, Thucydides emphasized chronology, a neutral point of view, and that the human world was the result of the actions of human beings. Greek historians also viewed history as cyclical, with events regularly reoccurring.[13]

Outside of Europe, there were historical traditions and sophisticated use of historical method in ancient and medieval China. The groundwork for professional historiography in East Asia was established by the Han Dynasty court historian known as Sima Qian (145–90 BC), author of the Shiji (Records of the Grand Historian). For the quality of his timeless written work, Sima Qian is posthumously known as the Father of Chinese Historiography. Chinese historians of subsequent dynastic periods in China used his Shiji as the official format for historical texts, as well as for biographical literature.

Saint Augustine was influential in Christian and Western thought at the beginning of the Medieval period. Through the Medieval and Renaissance periods, history was often studied through a sacred or religious perspective. Around 1800, German philosopher and historian Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel brought philosophy and a more secular approach in historical study.[7]

In the preface to his book the Muqaddimah, historian and early sociologist Ibn Khaldun warned of seven mistakes that he thought that historians regularly committed. In this criticism, he approached the past as strange and in need of interpretation. The originality of Ibn Khaldun was to claim that the cultural difference of another age must govern the evaluation of relevant historical material, to distinguish the principles according to which it might be possible to attempt the evaluation, and lastly, to feel the need for experience, in addition to rational principles, in order to assess a culture of the past.

Other historians of note who have advanced the historical methods of study include Leopold von Ranke, Lewis Bernstein Namier, Geoffrey Rudolph Elton, G.M. Trevelyan and A.J.P. Taylor. In the 20th century, historians focused less on epic nationalistic narratives, which often tended to glorify the nation or individuals, to more realistic chronologies. French historians introduced quantitative history, using broad data to track the lives of typical individuals, and were prominent in the establishment of cultural history (cf. histoire des mentalités). American historians, motivated by the civil rights era, focused on formerly overlooked ethnic, racial, and socio-economic groups. In recent years, postmodernists have challenged the validity and need for the study of history on the basis that all history is based on the personal interpretation of sources. In his book In Defence of History, Richard J. Evans, a professor of modern history at Cambridge University, defended the worth of history.

在人类文明发展的历史上中国曾经在早期计算工具的发明创造方面写过光辉的一页。远在商代，中国就创造了十进制记数方法，领先于世界千余年。

到了周代，发明了当时最先进的计算工具——算筹。这是一种用竹、木或骨制成的颜色不同的小棍。计算每一个数学问题时，通常编出一套歌诀形式的算法，一边计算，一边不断地重新布棍。中国古代数学家祖冲之，就是用算筹计算出圆周率在3.1415926和3.1415927之间。这一结果比西方早一千年。

珠算盘是中国的又一独创，也是计算工具发展史上的第一项重大发明。这种轻巧灵活、携带方便、与人民生活关系密切的计算工具，最初大约出现于汉朝，到元朝时渐趋成熟。珠算盘不仅对中国经济的发展起过有益的作用，而且传到日本、朝鲜、东南亚等地区，经受了历史的考验，至今仍在使用。

中国发明创造指南车、水运浑象仪、记里鼓车、提花机等，不仅对自动控制机械的发展有卓越的贡献，而且对计算工具的演进产生了直接或间接的影响。例如，张衡制作的水运浑象仪，可以自动地与地球运转同步，后经唐、宋两代的改进，遂成为世界上最早的天文钟

记里鼓车则是世界上最早的自动计数装置。提花机原理对计算机程序控制的发展有过间接的影响。中国古代用阳、阴两爻构成八卦，也对计算技术的发展有过直接的影响。莱布尼兹写过研究八卦的论文，系统地提出了二进制算术运算法则。他认为，世界上最早的二进制表示法就是中国的八卦。

计量史学是20世纪中期西方学界流行起来的史学研究方法，主要是针对理论研究的局限性而提出的新的直观的研究方法，随着历史研究的发展这种方法后来几乎被淘汰，但在经济史及财政史领域仍不失为较好的研究方法。其优点是可以直观的呈现数据的变化特征，直观描述社会现象，甚至透过现象揭露财政问题的本质。缺点是这种方法必须基于大量的数据材料支撑，而传统历史时代这种数字文献有限，不足于描述历史上经济发展的本质特征，另外，这种方法容易导致研究转向方法论，而轻视历史的多元特征及文化复杂性。

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博湖县13644498308： 计量史学的介绍 - ？
杭咐阿替： 计量史学的最大特征就是运用自然科学中数学方法对历史资料进行定量分析.定量分析主要研究事物的数量关系,定性分析主要研究事物的性质,传统史学实际上就是运用定性的方法.因此,计量史学出现的本身就是对传统史学的否定.计量史学在二十世纪六七年代风靡欧美各国,后来又波及了整个世界.

博湖县13644498308： 计量史学的内容 - ？
杭咐阿替： 利用电脑系统的搜集、整理和存储资料,对数据资料进行数量分析;制定各种数据模型,开展对历史现象与过程的模拟研究.

博湖县13644498308： 当代西方史学的特征及其发展趋势 - ？
杭咐阿替： 现当代史学的共同特征和趋势:在历史的哲学思维上从本体论逐步转向认识论,从所谓的思辩的历史哲学转向批判和分析的历史哲学 ;;从传统的描述性历史转向分析性历史 ;史学研究的对象从注重个别显要人物转向强调社会经济结构和心理结构的＂总体史＂及各类新专门史 ;研究方法从依靠个人进行史料的手工爬梳, 转向依靠电脑储存和处理文献资料,出现使用数理模型的计量史学.西方史学进入了一个新的重大 变革的时期.

博湖县13644498308： 西方新史学的主要内容 - ？
杭咐阿替：[答案] 新史学,广义上指20世纪西方各国各个新的史学流派,狭义上特指法国的《年新文化史,又称社会文化史,所研究的对象有以下几个方面:(1)物质文化的研究,如食物、服装等;(2)身体、性别研究;(3)记忆、语言的社会历史;(4)形象...