The theory and practice of historiography

Author: (Italian) Benedetto Croce / (English) Douglas Anslie / Fu Ren Gan
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 1982-09-01
Features: The author of this book, Benedetto Croce (1866—1952), was a renowned Italian bourgeois idealist philosopher and one of the representatives of the New Hegelianism school. The book was originally written in German and first published in 1915. It was then republished in Italian in 1919. In 1920, Douglas Anslie of the UK translated the English version based on the Italian edition, and this Chinese translation is based on the English version. Croce wrote extensively. Before this book, he had also written Aesthetics as the Science of Expression, Logic as the Science of Pure Concepts, and Practical Philosophy, among others. Later, he combined these three books with this one, The Theory and Practice of Historiography, and named it The Philosophy of Spirit, with the volume order following this arrangement, making this book the last volume. The four-volume Philosophy of Spirit expresses Croce's entire philosophical thought and constitutes his philosophical system. Croce's historical view was deeply influenced by Hegel but also incorporated views from Kant, as well as Mach of Austria and Bergson of France, giving it a compromising character. Croce's idealist historical view stands in stark opposition to the materialist historical view of Marxism. Croce took a openly reactionary stance against Marxism, frequently publishing articles opposing Marxism after the 1920s. The Italian Communist Party regarded the critique of Croce's philosophical thought as an important task on the Marxist theoretical front. The translation of this book into Chinese for publication was intended for use by China's theoretical and academic circles to analyze and critique it. Mr. Fu Ren Gan devoted great effort to translating this book, revising the translation multiple times to achieve both accuracy and elegance. Unfortunately, when the proofs were being set, Mr. Fu had passed away and could not personally oversee the final proofreading. Here, we express our sincere condolences to Mr. Fu Ren Gan. This book is an important work by the renowned Italian historian Croce. It is divided into two parts and three appendices. Part I discusses historiographical theory, emphasizing the differences between history and chronicles, natural history and history. It includes two chapters specifically on "Pseudo-History" and "Historiography," as well as discussions on "The Humanity of History," "Selecting and Dividing Historical Materials," and "The Differences and Divisions of Specialized History." Part II narrates the history of historiography, covering Greek and Roman historiography, medieval historiography, Renaissance historiography, Enlightenment historiography, Romantic historiography, and positivist historiography. [Preface] Preface to the Translation Series of World Academic Masterpieces Our institution has always attached great importance to translating academic masterpieces from around the world. Since the 1950s, we have been dedicated to translating and publishing classical academic works before the birth of Marxism, while also appropriately introducing representative works of contemporary schools with established reputations. Thanks to the support of scholars and translators, we have published over 300 such works in the past three decades. We firmly believe that only by enriching our minds with the entire wealth of human knowledge can we build a modern socialist society. The intellectual and academic value of these books is well-known and needs no elaboration. In the past, these translations were published as separate volumes, making it difficult to see the bigger picture. Compiling them into a series allows them to complement each other and present a grand panorama, making them more convenient for study and reference while facilitating cultural accumulation. For this reason, we published over 360 masterpieces in nine volumes from 1981 to 2000. We are now continuing to compile and publish the tenth volume, with plans to reach 400 by the end of 2004. In the future, we will continue to publish masterpieces based on the accumulation of individual works. Due to the use of original typesetting, the translations could not be thoroughly proofread again, and the formatting is not entirely uniform. Any prefaces or postfaces from the original translations have been retained as they were, with only a few exceptions corrected or removed. The reading public fully understands the need to approach these works with a correct analytical attitude, extracting their useful essence while discarding outdated dross, and this need requires no further explanation from us. We hope that scholars and translators at home and abroad will provide us with criticism and suggestions to help us improve this series. The preface to the Italian edition forms the core of this treatise. Almost all the articles in this work were first published in the journals of Italian academies and reviews between 1912 and 1913. Since they were part of a comprehensive plan, compiling them into a book was not difficult. This volume was originally published in German under the title The Theory and Practice of Historiography by Mohr Verlag in Tübingen in 1915. When it was published in Italian, I made some minor revisions and added three short essays as appendices to Part I. To understand why this volume is considered the fourth part of my Philosophy of Spirit, some explanation is needed. In reality, it is not a new, self-contained part of my philosophy but rather an expansion and deepening of my historiographical theory, which I had already discussed in certain chapters of the second part, Logic. However, my studies on the ways of the spirit, their differences and unity, their true concrete life, i.e., development and history, and their self-consciousness as historical thought—all point toward the problem of historical understanding. Therefore, in a sense, discussing historiography after having covered the broader scope and expanding it beyond the scope discussed in Part I can be seen as a natural conclusion to the entire work. The nature of this conclusion explains why the writing in this final volume is more concise and less didactic compared to the previous volumes, and why this approach is justified.