Historian Beliefs Essay

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Beliefs are dispositions that humans have evolved to give credence to. These beliefs, along with other attributes such as values, moral codes and habits, stem from and are shaped by things such as experiences, people, places, culture, politics and the media. The Oxford Dictionary defines belief to be “an acceptance that something exists or is true, especially one without proof”. Believing in something would result in one having significant commitment to certain ideas and opinions, irregardless of whether others endorse the same positions or not. Beliefs can be challenged and questioned from time to time when faced with conflicting views and ideologies. Despite not being proven to be true, having beliefs would imply that one still would still …show more content…

Looking at History is essentially the study of past events and following that, the interpretation of these events. Interpretation is often done by recovering and analyzing any sort of evidence and documentation from the past, be it in terms of writing, photography or oral interviews. Based upon the evidence they manage to gather and piece together through meticulous analysis, historians come up with ideologies that they have enough evidence on hand to substantiate. The evidence that Historians work with can be classified into two categories; primary sources and secondary sources. Primary sources, also commonly referred to as first-hand knowledge, is evidence that directly concerns the subject being studied. (Yale.edu). Fabricated by people who had witnesses who had been on site while the event was occurring, this category of evidence is sought after by Historians as it provides the most authentic and detailed information regarding the historical event they would be studying. Autobiographies and oral histories also encompass primary research. Secondary sources interprets and analyzes these primary sources (Princeton.edu). Secondary sources originate after the event that Historians are studying, usually by someone who did personally experience the event being researched about

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