Ferguson 1999: Difference between revisions
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(Created page with 'Ferguson, Niall, ed. ''Virtual History: Alternatives and Counterfactuals.'' New York: Basic Books, 1999. == Introduction: Virtual History: Towards a 'chaotic' theory of the past…') |
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== Introduction: Virtual History: Towards a 'chaotic' theory of the past, by Niall Ferguson, 1-90 == | == Introduction: Virtual History: Towards a 'chaotic' theory of the past, by Niall Ferguson, 1-90 == | ||
counterfactual imagining often disparaged by historians; fiction writers pursue such alternative histories but are "irredeemably fictional" which "tends to diminish the plausibility of the historical setting" (7) | |||
two kinds of counterfactuals used by historians: "those which are essentially the products of imagination but (generally) lack an empirical basis; and thsoe desigend to test hypotheses by (supposedly) empirical means, which eschew imagination in favor of computation" (18) | |||
Revision as of 20:49, 28 August 2012
Ferguson, Niall, ed. Virtual History: Alternatives and Counterfactuals. New York: Basic Books, 1999.
Introduction: Virtual History: Towards a 'chaotic' theory of the past, by Niall Ferguson, 1-90
counterfactual imagining often disparaged by historians; fiction writers pursue such alternative histories but are "irredeemably fictional" which "tends to diminish the plausibility of the historical setting" (7)
two kinds of counterfactuals used by historians: "those which are essentially the products of imagination but (generally) lack an empirical basis; and thsoe desigend to test hypotheses by (supposedly) empirical means, which eschew imagination in favor of computation" (18)