Bias in History

Date/Time

16/01/2023 (Monday)

8.00 - 9.30 pm

Location
The Adelaide





A talk by Gareth Harper

Everyone and everything has its history, long or short. The history of philosophy, for example, is the study of successive philosophers and schools of philosophy from the Ancient Greeks to the present day. Within this broad field can be found the philosophy of history, which concerns itself with two very different questions: (a) how sound is the methodology by which history (not just philosophical history) is studied; and (b) whether history – History – is going anywhere and/or has any meaning. The talk will focus on the inescapable problem of bias in methodology; how that bias filters from both academic publications and the imaginative arts through to influence the world of international affairs, domestic politics, and social cohesion; and whether bias is countered or promoted by history’s many cliches (e.g. “bunk”).