Elements of historical narratives

evaluations

pp. 643-660

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

Abstract

Statements which directly express a valuating attitude of the speaker or writer are usually termed valuating statements, moral judgements, or evaluations. They are also one of the elements of historical narratives. There has been an inveterate controversy over the issue whether evaluations, as distinct from descriptive statements, may be ascribed a logical value (truth or falsehood). Most specialists firmly reject that possibility and stress that evaluations are logically neutral; some try to defend the traditional concept of truth as applicable to valuating judgements; and still others either suggest a specific interpretation of the concept of truth as applied to valuating judgements, or, like M. Ossowska, claim that "even if it be held that norms can be neither true nor false in the traditional sense, i.e., in the sense of somehow agreeing or disagreeing with facts, this does not amount yet to refusing them all logical value".¹