Document Type : Scientific-Research
Authors
1 teacher
2 Assistant Professor of History, Faculty of Literature and Humanities, Shahid Chamran University of Ahvaz, Iran.
Abstract
In the last few years, due to the efforts of prominent history professors, especially: Hasan Hazrati, Hashem Aghajari, Alireza Molaei-Tavani and Qobad Mansourbakht, a great debate has been arranged about the mission of historians, which can be the beginning of reflection and in-depth consideration of a serious issue. be; Mission or disciplinary duty of historians. Based on this, the question arises, what is the most important task of historians? Hassan Hazrati, in criticizing the theory-oriented approach, and influenced by the concept of " thick description" by Clifford Geertz, proposed the term "deep and extensive description in the discussions of historical methodology, and unlike most Iranian historians,he considered the most important task of historians to be a comprehensive or deep and extensive description of the events of the human past, which, from a methodological point of view, seeks answers of "what and how".
The present article is actually a critique of this opinion and an exploration to provide a better answer to the question of the most important task of historians. The authors of the article believe that even if it is possible to separate the question of "how and why" from the point of view of the research method, the historian's neglect of "why" means lowering the field capacity of history. Therefore, the most important task of historians is to provide a clear explanation (explanation) of how and why events happened; without separating or primary and secondary seeing the importance of how or why.
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