Theory of Knowledge - Course Companion for Students Marija Uzunova Dang Arvin Singh Uzunov Dang

IV. Ethics
in Chaptr 5. Grgory Younging, author
nountr
Elements of Indigenous Style: A Guide for Writing
of
and About Indigenous Peoples, assrts that oth
By
styl and pross with whih w writ aout
th
Popls ontain politis that w must
Indignous
snsitiv to.
th prati and thory of history as an
Within
how do w know right from wrong? Lt’s
AOK,
with a fundamntal assumption aout
start
itslf: should it “” somthing?
history
might we address a ‘should’ question in
How
How do we decide what we ‘ought’
historiography?
research and communicate?… Why question the
to
people make about history making and
assumptions
nature of history? Questioning assumptions can be,
the
an ethical activity: that is, it may help us to better
rst,
out what history should be, who should make it
gure
how it might guide our actions now and in the future.
and
may even prompt us to wonder… whether history
It
is unethical and ought to come to an end.
making
rnt dads, som historians hav argud
In
history should mra an thial agnda to
that
a rstitutiv for, to do justi to thos whos
has long n hiddn.
suffring
of this argumnt is asd on th assrtion,
Part
nountrd in this haptr, that an
alrady
history is impossil, and so whatvr
ojtiv
w “rat” should moilizd
history
thial nds. William Gallois nots that
towards
siln, or lindnss, as h alls it, on
history’s
qustion so far has ld it ”to ommit and
this
injustis towards its sujts”.
prptuat
… has chosen to remain blind to the manner
History
which it constitutes knowledge and deaf to those
in
criticise the consequences which emanate from
who
work and its logic.
historical
an xampl of thial historiography, Gallois
As
Rort Young’s White Mythologies: History
its
and the West, whih ritiizs modrn
Writing
for failing to omprhnd how thir
historians
“undrpinnd wstrn imprialism”. Gallois
work
upon history to “do justi to th olonisd”,
alls
sualtrn historis hav sought to do and Mik
as
dos in Late Victorian Holocausts: El Niño
Davis
and the Making of the Third World. Davis
Famines
th task of rstitutiv history sriously,
taks
how th politial, onomi and
showing
powr of olonialists am togthr in
intlltual
xploitation of “natural disastrs”, going so far
th
to lal ths disastrs gnoid.
as
rstitutiv history is also supportd y Linda
A
Smith (1999) who nots that most
Tuhiwai
aounts faild not only to do justi to
historial
popls, ut wr ssntial (not just
sujugatd
to th imprialist projt. Aording
ompliit)
hr, historis of imprialism mphasizd
to
rang of xplanations, most famously as a
a
of suring onomi xpansion to nw
systm
and rsours, drivn y th “nds”
markts
Europans. Som historians argud that
of
th onomi, politial and military
yond
imprialism was an idology,
ramifiations,
y th Ag of Enlightnmnt, whih
inspird
a dp transformation of lif in Europ
promptd
a ultural, intlltual and thnial lvl. In
on
tlling, “imprialism oms an intgral
this
of th dvlopmnt of th modrn stat,
part
sin, of idas and of th ‘modrn’ human
of
point is that most historis of
Smith’s
and olonialism do not do justi
imprialism
th olonizd popls, as hr xampls aov
to
Young and Smith ar among many who
show.
argud for an thial history. In rnt
hav
thr hav n numrous fforts y
dads
historians, post-olonial sholars and
fminist
historians to ritiqu and
post-struturalist
thir fild. For studnts this prsnts
rimagin
rlativly nw hallng: w hav long n
a
that nutrality is a virtu, and to alrt
taught
distortions of history. Ths ritiqus assrt
to
nutrality is impossil, or simply not
that
goodnough.
9
IV.1 Should history “be” something?
(Hughes-Warrington 2015)
means restoring rights, restoring to a
Restitutive
state or compensating for loss or injury.
previous
prson”.
(Gallois 2012)
274