00:00:00.000 The course of history is really something indescribable.
00:00:10.120 Anything that happens, a bad night, not only of a very important influential man, but
00:00:20.620 of anybody is part of history, even what happens to a fly, is part of the historical
00:00:32.940 process of human history, historical process because it may, of course, especially if it
00:00:41.900 is such a play, it may have really important influence.
00:01:09.900 The point is really that we have to distinguish, let us say, the historical processes which
00:01:29.900 are infinitely complex and infinitely elaborate, then we have to distinguish the writing of
00:01:45.980 history, and that is what one called the historiography, there is this strange aspect
00:01:58.260 of history that we cannot write just history, we have to write history of something,
00:02:10.580 and there is another important thing, and that is, that if we have no problems, history
00:02:22.380 wouldn't be very interesting, and problems are problems to explain, yes, of course every historian
00:02:41.860 who had ever done what his story, his story, his research, knows that when he goes into an
00:02:47.380 archive or public records office, he cannot possibly read all the millions of documents there,
00:02:54.380 if he search it really is search for an answer to a phrase, whether it is when he search
00:03:00.540 in six or ten years, or how many ships arrived at a certain spot from the far east, or
00:03:08.900 as to say, well, unfortunately, how certain things develop and became what they are now.
00:03:17.420 It is often said, of course, that school children should not only learn the sequence
00:03:23.140 of kings and of battles, but those who say so, they often mean that they should only
00:03:33.140 Now, I wouldn't deny that the history of exploitation and society against exploitation
00:03:40.620 is also an interesting topic of the kind you alluded to, but I think it would be very
00:03:47.580 important if it's school, children would learn, they would be booked by Paul Dain, or
00:03:55.980 everything has a history, would learn that one can be curious about how anything evolves
00:04:04.100 in our lives, and often the question leads us to very surprising and interesting answers.
00:04:17.500 I think there are no historical laws, but there are situations which, more or less, certain
00:04:27.780 aspects, of course, repeat themselves, if we want to explain something in history, we
00:04:35.300 have to take these typical situations, make a way, a kind of model of them, and use
00:04:46.300 them this model in order to explain certain events.
00:04:54.620 So, for example, the model of availability of books leads in essence, it seems to democracy,
00:05:06.620 and a similar consequence, more complicated, we found into renaissance.
00:05:16.540 Our own time, our western democracy, may be said to be very largely a consequence of
00:05:30.660 There are quite a number of examples of such historical explanation, which explain things,
00:05:46.260 of course, only conjecturally, which first seem almost in explicit paper.
00:05:56.260 So, have spoken in this context of a logic of situation?
00:06:00.620 Yes, that is a very valuable idea of situation.
00:06:06.100 The logic of situation, I mean that we analyze a situation in such a way that the actions
00:06:16.140 of the people in that situation are then simply the optimal actions which these people
00:06:30.260 I would however say that it does belong also to the logic of situation that people in
00:06:42.020 acting make mistakes, mistakes are unavoidable and can be through in a way they are illogical,
00:06:54.740 but they can be incorporated in the logic of the situation.
00:07:00.900 The problem of democracy is the avoidance of tyranny and it is a great problem because
00:07:19.660 There may be a popular leader, he may have democratic backing and with democratic backing
00:07:26.900 as it were with the legitimacy of the people, he may become a child.
00:07:34.820 We have that in Greece, it is described by Plato as typical and we have it again in the
00:07:47.020 English revolution and we have it again and the Hitler just to give a few such very characteristic
00:08:01.740 And for this reason, I believe that it is important that democracy even though it is translated
00:08:13.340 as rule of the people should be interpreted not as a popular rule because the people
00:08:23.940 may also rise a tyrant, but is that kind of structure where the people have the power to
00:08:40.380 dismiss the government to get rid of the government.
00:08:46.380 So I have not only now spoken about history but actually I have got politics, but these
00:08:58.980 What you just said about democracy having to do with an effort to prevent tyranny, again
00:09:07.420 applies particularly well to the story of Florence in the 14th and 15th century.
00:09:14.220 The Florentines were so anxious to prevent tyranny by preventing anybody from ruling alone
00:09:24.620 that introduced a very complicated system of elections to offices, each of which should
00:09:31.580 not last longer than sometimes two months or four months and this very complicated system
00:09:37.780 of elections, of course, was falsifying, it might say that it led to Medici rule as an
00:09:47.180 unintended consequence because it wasn't workable unless some people really maintain the
00:09:54.660 continuity and also the continuity of power and foreign politics and in other matters.
00:10:01.580 So that here you have an example of the error which you mentioned before which can
00:10:06.460 creep into a situation if it isn't possibly properly thought through or even if it is thought
00:10:17.540 So this urologic of situation doesn't mean as I understand it that the logic is compelling
00:10:36.540 Now historical determinism is something which has grown out of natural determinism of the
00:10:44.180 ideal that there are natural laws which determine completely what happens similar than
00:10:54.340 the historical laws which determine what happens but while I think there are natural laws
00:11:02.740 even though not really deterministic natural laws, I think there are hardly anything like
00:11:13.980 The whole idea of deterministic goals of course again back to the gods who determine
00:11:26.740 From here it is then taken over with the development of science where instead of the gods
00:11:36.780 the natural law explain everything and then with the evolution of history and of historic
00:11:46.300 decision arises the idea that historical law determine and explain everything.
00:11:53.980 But I think that this is a false dogma, one of the many false dogmas which have played
00:12:11.660 Perhaps we might say that there is another false dogma which is particularly popular today
00:12:18.940 which I might refer to as relativism in history.
00:12:22.980 It has to do with your idea about the logic of situations.
00:12:28.020 It denies in a way that we can ever explain or understand another period or another culture
00:12:37.340 because all the presuppositions are so different in the context of every statement is so
00:12:44.460 different that we will never understand let us say something said in ancient trees or
00:12:52.820 anywhere or in Florence or anywhere else because the framework within which these statements
00:13:00.660 are made is so different that we cannot reconstruct it ever.
00:13:07.180 So I have written in this context in an article which I am very fond that this doctrine
00:13:19.900 It arises from the modest realization that we haven't really quite understood yet but this
00:13:29.420 should not lead to nihilistic attitude, it cannot be understood that only to realizing
00:13:41.260 that our task is very difficult in our task in understanding and that a lot of work should
00:13:50.300 go in, a lot of thought, should go in and a lot of imagination has to go in, obviously.
00:13:58.540 Anybody may see how do you know that you are so successful, you may only imagine that you
00:14:04.820 are so successful, nevertheless in this way of historical structure, research, we do this
00:14:16.540 cover more and more facts and the facts do fit better and better together into a picture.
