The nature of historical cognition

pp. 305-359

in: Jerzy Topolski, Methodology of history, Berlin, Springer, 1976

Abstract

Reflections on the foundations of historical knowledge, interpreted here as the knowledge of the past events in the history of mankind,¹ should begin with a general description of the process of cognition. Acquiring the knowledge of the past, which takes place through historical research, is — regardless of the properties which might be ascribed to it — part of the process of human cognition.