I am working through questions about paradigms and historiography right now. These questions drove me to write this creative speech. I went from, “Is there such a thing in history as ‘just the facts?’” and from there I went to is there anything in cartography as “just the facts.” This reductio ab absurdum I hope shows that maps are used for different purposes, and there are better and worse maps for different purposes. We are looking for maps which fit our purposes. The right maps for the right purposes.
According to the line of reasoning in the reductio, there is no map which is “just the facts” without also being “all the facts” and thus becoming the territory itself.
What does this say about the craft of history? Or the relationship between the mind and truth? I leave it to you.
I am working through questions about paradigms and historiography right now. These questions drove me to write this creative speech. I went from, “Is there such a thing in history as ‘just the facts?’” and from there I went to is there anything in cartography as “just the facts.” This reductio ab absurdum I hope shows that maps are used for different purposes, and there are better and worse maps for different purposes. We are looking for maps which fit our purposes. The right maps for the right purposes.
According to the line of reasoning in the reductio, there is no map which is “just the facts” without also being “all the facts” and thus becoming the territory itself.
What does this say about the craft of history? Or the relationship between the mind and truth? I leave it to you.