A historian must combine the rigor of the scientist with the imagination of the artist. To what extent, then, can the historian be confident about his or her conclusions?

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IB Theory of Knowledge Essay 2: History

Title 2: "A historian must combine the rigor of the scientist with the imagination of the artist." To what extent, then, can the historian be confident about his or her conclusions?

Thursday April 29th, 2010

When studying or learning history, will anybody ever achieve a state of absolute certainty? Is there even such a thing as certainty? The hardest part of studying history is the gathering of evidence that supports information that is being processed. This evidence is necessary to unravel information about events that have occurred in the past. Evidence is ultimately the main factor that leads to the understanding and knowledge of the occurring of an event. It plays a role in the 'difficult aspect of studying history' because there is a question of reliability and credibility of the piece of evidence. The degree of reliability is correlated to the creation of different opinions and points of views that are developed over past events. Different conclusions are made based on the different evidences presented, and even though the historians who make these conclusions believe in them, they know that absolute certainty is unrealistic. Because the evidences that some