Herbert Butterfield's Research On The History Of Thought

Herbert Butterfield(1900-1979)was Regius Professor of History and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cambridge.As a British historian and philosopher of history,he is remembered chiefly for two books,The Whig Interpretation of History(1931)and Origins of Modern Science(1949).Over the course of his career,Butterfield mainly focus on historiography,the theory of international relations and the history of science.Butterfield’ s papers and books made a profound influence even in Chinese academia,and he is still a hot topic in historiography research.This dissertation is focused on the historical perspectives of Butterfield and analyzes the main ideas of his books like Whig Interpretation of History.It thus demonstrates the significance and applicability of his historical perspectives.There are five parts of this dissertation.Part I introduces the subject,background and main thoughts of this dissertation.Part II gives a brief introduction on Herbert Butterfield and his career.Part III and Part IV as the essential parts of this dissertation,analyses Butterfield’ s historical perspectives.Part V concludes the influence of Butterfield and his historical ideas.