Existence and Knowledge

Existence and Knowledge

Historical Causation and Virtual History

Document Type : Research Article

Author
Hossein Sheykh Rezaee
Assistant Professor of Iranian Research Institute of Wisdom and Philosophy
Abstract
The main theme of this paper is the notion of historical causation (causal relationships between historical events). Among three causal theories that will be considered briefly, the counterfactual analysis has the best position to be applied in the field of history. Using this analysis needs to have a clear understanding of modal claims in history. After some remarks on the nature and importance of virtual history, two proposed criteria of writing "what if …" history will be discussed. Although the first one, the necessity of connecting historical counterfactual claims to well-established laws, is acceptable, the domain of applicable well-established laws in history is much narrower than the domain of historical counterfactuals.
Regarding the second criterion, minimal-rewrite rule, it will be argued that this rule in its current form is incomplete and needs some holistic components to be added. The next issue is whether virtual history is compatible with historical determinism or not. My argument is that at least one kind of determinism (structural determinism) is compatible with virtual history.
Finally, the role of ideology in running historical counterfactual scenarios will be discussed. To avoid subjectivity, we need to avoid ideological judgments in modal claims as much as possible.
Keywords
Historical Causation
Counterfactual Conditionals
Virtual History
Minimal-Rewrite Rule
Ideology

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