Western Historical Thinking : An Intercultural Debate

"What is history - a question historians have been asking themselves time and again. Does "history" as an academic discipline, as it has evolved in the West over the centuries, represent a specific mode of historical thinking that can be defined in contrast to other forms of historical consciousness? In this volume, Peter Burke, a prominent "Western" historian, offers ten hypotheses that attempt to constitute specifically "Western Historical Thinking." Scholars from Asia and Africa comment on his position in the light of their own ideas of the sense and meaning of historical thinking. The volume is rounded off by Peter Burke's comments on the questions and issues raised by the authors and his suggestions for the way forward towards a common ground for intercultural communication."--BOOK JACKET Contents Preface to the Series Introduction: Historical Thinking as Intercultural Discourse I: THESES Western Historical Thinking in a Global Perspective – 10 Theses II: COMMENTS 1. General Comments Perspectives in Historical Anthropology Searching for Common Principles: A Plea and Some Remarks on the Islamic Tradition The Coherence of the West 2. The Peculiarity of the West Toward an Archaeology of Historical Thinking Trauma and Suffering: A Forgotten Source of Western Historical Consciousness Western Deep Culture and Western Historical Thinking What is Uniquely Western about the Historiography of the West in Contrast to that of China? The Westernization of World History 3. The Perspective of the Others Western Historical Thinking from an Arabian Perspective Cognitive Historiography and Normative Historiography Western Uniqueness? Some Counterarguments from an African Perspective Historical Programs: A Western Perspective 4. The Difference of the Others Reflections on Chinese Historical Thinking Must History Follow Rational Patterns of Interpretation? Critical Questions from a Chinese Perspective Some Reflections on Early Indian Historical Thinking III: AFTERWORD Reply Notes on Contributers Index