Topology of the Experiment in Historical Sciences (Hermeneutic and Epistemological Contours)

Abstract

The article analyzes the features of a historical experiment as a study conducted by the subject of historical knowledge entering into a speech laboratory with some experimental interaction, question-answer, dialogic, and dialectic. The meth­ods of historical questioning, proposing, substantiating, and testing hypotheses, criticizing sources and other methodological techniques that have been estab­lished over the centuries in the research practices of historians are proposed to be considered in an epistemological retrospective, taking into account the classic “Topics” and “Posterior Analytics” of Aristotle (analysis of probabilistic judg­ments, general places of dialectical reasoning, etc.). The need of modern episte­mology of historical knowledge for a careful and, if possible, complete considera­tion of the topological characteristics of modern historiography, the identification of speech unities, formal logical and dialectical preferences, and historical re­search is substantiated. Along with the thematic-program, narrative-substantial, and other quite established approaches to the analysis of historical evidence and the construction or reconstruction of historical facts, an “understanding”, in-depth description of the dialogical states of historical knowledge could contrib­ute to methodological innovations in various research areas – from intellectual history to the history of mentalities, in various interdisciplinary areas of humani­tarian knowledge.