Theory & History of HistoriographyCroce, Benedetto
Philosophy
Theory & History of Historiography
Croce, Benedetto
Historiography
This only becomes contestable when they are estranged from themselves,
lose their real nature, lay claim to illegitimate functions, and
take their imaginary historicity too seriously. We find this in the
metaphysic of naturalism, especially in _evolutionism,_ which has
been its most recent form. This is due, not so much to the men of
science (who are as a rule cautious and possess a more or less clear
consciousness of the limits of those schemes and series) as to the
dilettante scientists and dilettante philosophers to whom we owe the
many books that undertake to narrate the origin of the world, and
which, aided by the acrisia of their authors, run on without meeting
any obstacle, from the cell, indeed from the nebula, to the French
Revolution, and even to the socialist movements of the nineteenth
century. 'Universal histories,' and therefore cosmological romances
(as we have already remarked in relation to universal histories), are
composed, not of pure thought, which is criticism, but of thought
mingled with imagination, which finds its outlet in myths. It is
useless to prove in detail that the evolutionists of to-day are
creators of myths, and that they weary themselves with attempts to
write the first chapters of Genesis in modern style (their description
is more elaborate, but they confuse such description with history in
a manner by no means inferior to that of Babylonian or Israelitish
priests), because this becomes evident as soon as such works are placed
in their proper position. Their logical origin will at once make clear
their true character.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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