| There is a raging debate over the fact that | | | | History is a science:— |
| whether history is an art or science. | | | | From the following points we can define history |
| History as an Art: | | | | as a science. |
| Those who believe that history is an art advocate | | | | 1) History aims at discovering facts of the past |
| the following opinion :— | | | | events and interprets them objectively. |
| 1) According to Rickman, “History deals with | | | | 2) History uses various traits of enquiry such as |
| sequence of events, each of them unique while | | | | observation, classification, formulation of |
| science is concerned with the routine appearance | | | | hypothesis and explanation of evidence before |
| of things and aims at generation and the | | | | reconstructing the past. |
| establishment of regularities, governed by | | | | 3) History follows the trends of enquiry to find |
| laws.” | | | | out. |
| 2) Colingwood says, “Events of history are | | | | 4) History seeks to tell the fact by giving a |
| the things which the historian looks, not at, but | | | | scientific method, hence, it is a science. |
| through, to discern the thought within.” | | | | 5) Is history a science as physics or chemistry or |
| 3) Some scholars are of the view that history is | | | | biology are? It is of course a negative question. |
| neither pure science nor pure art. In other words, | | | | History is a social science. It deals only with the |
| a blending of the two. When it discovers facts it is | | | | experiences of human beings and human |
| a science and when it settles truths, it becomes | | | | civilizations. |
| an art. | | | | 6) Historical facts cannot be observed. |
| 4) Some of the people went to the view that | | | | Then, what is history? |
| history is a part of literature. | | | | 1) History is a unique subject possessing the |
| 5) Historical data are not available for scientific | | | | potentials of both an art and a science. |
| observation and experiment. | | | | 2) Secondly, history is neither pure science nor |
| 6) History is an art only. It cannot be called | | | | art, hence, it is two sides of the same coin. |
| science. It is not based upon certain concepts and | | | | 3) Thirdly, history of course is a social science and |
| ideologies. | | | | an art. In that condition history shows its flexibility |
| 7) Of course, history is a social science, which | | | | and variety. |
| contacts with human life and actions. | | | | 4) Fourthly, history is a subject of study is less or |
| 8) In history, we have a set of the data. It is fully | | | | more completely at the mercy of sources. |
| analysed and classified. | | | | 5) Fifthly, history is a natural science. |