History: Definition, Discipline, and Underlying Philosophy
History: Definition, Discipline, and Underlying Philosophy
History: Definition, Discipline, and Underlying Philosophy
The origin of the word History is associated with the Greek word ‘historia’ which means ‘information’ or
‘an enquiry designed to elicit truth’.
History has been defined differently by different scholars. The following definitions indicate the meaning
and scope of History:
“History is the record of what one age finds worthy of note in another.”
Jacob Burckhardt
“History is the story of Man’s struggle through the ages against nature and the elements; against
wild beasts and the jungle and some of his own kind who have tried to keep him down and to
exploit him for their own benefit”.
Jawaharlal Nehru
The above definitions explain History as significant records of events of the past and a meaningful story
of mankind depicting the details of what happened to man and why it happened. Mainly it deals with
the human world.
History is both a discipline and a philosophy. History is a unique subject possessing the potentialities
of both a discipline and a philosophy. It does the enquiry after truth and wisdom; thus, history is a
Discipline and is on factual and proper basis. It is also based on the narrative account of the past; thus,
it is a philosophy or a piece of wisdom from the past. The disciplinary nature of history is impersonal,
impartial, and capable of experimentation.
Whereas absolute impartiality is not possible in history because the historian is a narrator, and he looks
at the past from a certain point of view. History cannot remain at the level of knowing only. The
construction and reconstruction of the past are inevitable parts of history.
Like the wisdom from any philosophy, its wholeness, harmony, and truth are inseparable from a
concrete and vivid appreciation of its parts. History, in fact, is a social science discipline and a
philosophy. In that lie its flexibility, its variety and excitement.
In history, historical source is the original reference that contain important historical information. These
sources are something that inform us about history at the most basic level, and these sources are used
as clues in order to study history.
Historical sources include documents, artefacts, archaeological sites, features, oral transmissions,
stone inscriptions, paintings, recorded sounds, images (photographs, motion pictures), and oral history.
Even ancient relics and ruins, broadly speaking, are historical sources.
Secondary sources analyze a scholarly question and often use primary sources as evidence.
Examples of Secondary sources include books and articles about a topic. They may include lists of
sources, i.e. bibliographies that may lead you to other primary or secondary sources.
The major challenges to historical research revolve around the problems of sources, knowledge,
explanation, objectivity, choice of subject, and the peculiar problems of contemporary history. The
problem of sources is a serious challenge to the historian in the task of reconstructing the past and later
on were given an answer. Historians agreed that the molding of our own history should be classified
into three (3) eras: Pre-Colonial, Colonial, and Post-Colonial. This is so since the Philippines was
colonized by three (3) countries namely: Spain, the United States, and Japan.
• Pre-Colonial Period
Indian culture has long reached the archipelago during the period of Pallava dynasty and the
Gupta Empire that led to the “Indianized” kingdoms established in the Philippines. A clear
evidence is the use of honorific titles in the pre-colonial Philippines. There is no other significant
historical documents from this period except for Laguna Copperplate Inscription, a legal
document inscribed on a copper plate dated 900 CE which is the earliest known calendar dated
document found in the Philippines.
Ma-i, an ancient sovereign state located in what is now the Philippines, is notable in the history
of the Philippines for being the first place in the archipelago ever to be mentioned in any foreign
account which was first documented in 971 AD, in the Song dynasty documents known as the
History of Song. Its existence was also mentioned in the 10th-century records of the Sultanate
of Brunei.
Until the year 1000 CE, maritime societies exist in the archipelago but there was no significant
political state unifying the entire Philippines. The region only included numerous small
administrative divisions (ranging in size from villages to city-states) under the sovereignty of
competing thalassocracies ruled by datus, rajahs, sultans or lakans.
• Colonial Period
The first recorded document that mentions the archipelago of the Philippines was Antonio
Pigafetta's chronicle Report of the first trip around the world on his narrative record of the journey
of a Spanish expedition in search of the Spice Islands published sometimes between 1524-
1525.
Another notable document was Antonio de Morga's Sucesos de las Islas Filipinas published in
1609 based on the author's personal experience and documentations from eye- witnesses of
the survivors of Miguel López de Legazpi's expedition.
Documents published are chronicles by the early Spanish explorers and navigators and religious
records of Spanish friars of their Catholic mission during the Spanish colonial period.
• Post-Colonial Period
The historiography of the post-colonial period focused on the Philippine revolutions and the
Philippine–American War as historians saw the colonial era as a prelude. Some pre-colonial and
colonial literatures and books made by both Filipinos and Spanish were fully censored by the
American government and any person who would create any information related to the past of
the Filipino people were killed or brainwashed by the US Army. The critical role played by the
Filipinos in shaping the Philippine national history in this period is well highlighted and analyzed
based on the accounts on the revolution and the Philippine- American War as it describes the
social, economic, political, and cultural conditions of the Philippines.
• Organizations
Scholarly organizations and societies have been formed which usually hold conferences, publish
journals and promote historical knowledge and studies particularly in Philippine History.
• Government Agency
The National Historical Commission of the Philippines is a government agency of the Philippines
whose mission is "the promotion of Philippine history and cultural heritage through research,
dissemination, conservation, sites management and heraldry works and aims to inculcate
awareness and appreciation of the noble deeds and ideals of our heroes and other illustrious
Filipinos, to instill pride in the Filipino people and to rekindle the Filipino spirit through the lessons
of history.