On The Epistemological Characteristics Of Historical Discipline In The German Classical Historicism

This artical is to discuss the epistemological characteristics of historical discipline in the classical german Historicism which Leopold von Ranke (1795-1886) and Johann Gustav Droysen (1808-1884) represent, in order to answer the question what kind of science is the historical discipline of the classical german Historicism. In my opinion the theory of historical discipline can be seperated into two aspects. On the one hand it implies the role of historian which will be seen as the subject in the process of historical study. On the other hand it is about the characteristics of history which is to research.Firstly, in this artical we can see that in the process of historical study history is not absolute independent of historian. In the historical theories of Ranke and Droysen we can discover an explicit subjective participation of historian. Ranke's famous motto "wie es eigentlich gewesen" implies an implicit role of historian, while in the Historik Droysen tries to offer a systematic basis for historical discipline and in his theory man can discover an explicit consciousness of historian's subjective participation. Nevertheless the exertion of historian's subjectivity in research is not out of limits. The contact between historian and history in Ranke's theory is made by the providence behind the secular human life, while Droysen invites a conception of "sittliche M?chte" in the theory of historical discipline, which confines the dimension of historical discipline in the human activity. Only when historian is conscious that he is also a number of "sittliche M?chte" and blends his own thought into the "sittliche M?chte", then the standpoint of historian can be seen as right.Secondly,in the epistemology of classical german Historicism the object history has a coherence. It is not a kind of linear progressive concept of history but shows as a dynamic historical development. This historical coherence is the consequence of the integration of Individuality and Development, which are seen as the two key conceptions of german Historicism. Both Ranke and Droysen believe that there is a coherence in the process of historical development. That is the premiss of Ranke's historical writing and of Droysen's historical theoretical constitution.Despite there are many differences between the historical theories of Ranke and Droysen, we can also get impressions of the epistemological charateristics in the theory of historical discipline of the classical german Historicism. On the one hand the exertion of historian's subjective participation suggests an initiation of historian in the study of history. On the other hand the coherence of history means that the scope of research can be infinitely expanded. Meanwhile it is obviously to see that the classical german historicists have made effort to give the historical discipline a specific dimension. But we find that the definition of the concept of historical discipline in the sight of classical german historicists seems obscure, who try to correspond the sciencitific charater with the artistic charater in a dimension of historical discipline. It is the contribution of classical german historicists to the development of theory of historical discipline that has left us historians today an open question, what kind of science our historical discipline looks like.