History

History (from Greek ἱστορία, historia, meaning 'inquiry; knowledge acquired by investigation')[2] is the
past as it is described in writtendocuments, and the study thereof.[3][4] Events occurring before written
records are considered prehistory. "History" is an umbrella termthat relates to past events as well as
the memory, discovery, collection, organization, presentation, and interpretation of information about
these events. Scholars who write about history are called historians.
History also includes the academic discipline which uses a narrative to examine and analyse a
sequence of past events, and objectively determine the patterns of cause and effect that determine
them.[5][6] Historians sometimes debate the nature of history and its usefulness by discussing the
study of the discipline as an end in itself and as a way of providing "perspective" on the problems of
the present.[5][7][8][9]
Stories common to a particular culture, but not supported by external sources (such as the tales
surrounding King Arthur), are usually classified as cultural heritage or legends, because they do not
show the "disinterested investigation" required of the discipline of history.[10][11] Herodotus, a 5th-
century BC Greek historian is considered within the Western tradition to be the "father of history",
and, along with his contemporary Thucydides, helped form the foundations for the modern study of
human history. Their works continue to be read today, and the gap between the culture-focused
Herodotus and the military-focused Thucydides remains a point of contention or approach in modern
historical writing. In East Asia, a state chronicle, the Spring and Autumn Annals, was known to be
compiled from as early as 722 BC although only 2nd-century BC texts have survived.

. Positivism
Positivism is a philosophical theory stating that certain ("positive") knowledge is based on natural
phenomena and their properties and relations. Thus, information derived from sensory experience,
interpreted through reason and logic, forms the exclusive source of all certain
knowledge.[1] Positivism holds that valid knowledge (certitude or truth) is found only in this a
posteriori knowledge.
Verified data (positive facts) received from the senses are known as empirical evidence; thus
positivism is based on empiricism.[1]
Positivism also holds that society, like the physical world, operates according to
general laws. Introspective and intuitive knowledge is rejected, as
are metaphysics and theology because metaphysical and theological claims cannot be verified by
sense experience. Although the positivist approach has been a recurrent theme in the history of
western thought,[2] the modern approach was formulated by the philosopher Auguste Comte in the
early 19th century.[3] Comte argued that, much as the physical world operates according to gravity
and other absolute laws, so does society,[4] and further developed positivism into a Religion of
Humanity.