The New Annalistic: A Sketch of a Theory of History

This article argues for the establishment of a new, "annalistic" model of history and historical investigation. This implies a new concept of historical event: instead of being seen as an element within a historical narrative, the historical event is defined as the common reference point of many narratives that can be told about it. The annalistic model also implies a new concept of historical change: instead of being defined as the change of an "object" within a set of given historical parameters, historical change has to be perceived as the change of parameters related to a given historical object. A new concept of history follows from the annalistic model: instead of history being a metaphysical unity of space and time (the destiny of mankind, the positivist's world of facts), in which everything is linked to everything, it is instead the product of historical judgment carried out by those who design stories about their own past, present, and future. To the "annalist" a world is imaginable in which no history has existed, exists, or will exist.
The article analyzes three aspects of the concept of historical time: it demonstrates the huge variety of temporal structures in history; it argues for the foundation of the representation of historical time in linguistic concepts; and it discusses the relationship of fictionality and reality in historical discourse. Finally, the annalistic model is compared to the traditional concept of history established by historicism in the nineteenth century.     

Towards a Theory of Cultural Evolution

Abstract

Previous experience in the development of the mathematical theory of biological evolution, has helped the authors toward their theory of cultural evolution. In this review a constant comparison between the two evolutions, in both directions, has led to an interdisciplinary understanding. Cultural transmission is discussed in detail and the ten major modes of transmission are enunciated; cultural traits are defined and the variance within, as well as between, groups considered. Cultural and environmental selection as well as complex transmission are further aspects leading the authors to the conclusion, that in spite of gross oversimplification, their theory is essential for a rigorous qualitative investigation of cultural evolution.     

Strategic Alliances in Action: Toward a Theory of Evolution

The popularity and prevalence of strategic alliances for problem solving has been well documented in research on the corporate sector and public policy. However, there has been limited work to date on building a comprehensive theory about the evolutionary process of alliances. The purpose of this article is to synthesize current research on alliance development in order to develop a model of strategic alliance evolution. The theoretical model is built with ideas from prior research as well as findings from our own recent research on alliances in education. We conducted a national study of strategic alliances in charter schools focused on uncovering the process of evolution—including how alliances are initiated, operated, and evaluated—and the various internal and external factors that influence alliance development and progress. Our findings offer a model of strategic alliance evolution and provide direction for future research.     

比较史学的理论方法和实践

19世纪后半叶以来形成的比较史学流派至今仍方兴未艾。我国学术界在 2 0世纪 80年代曾掀起比较文化研究的热潮 ,这种 (中西 )文化的比较研究是我国历史学界把我国现代化进程与世界上其他国家现代化历史相联系而产生的。无论是现代化的比较研究还是文化的比较研究 ,两者都属于世     

守先待後:史學在中國的地位及演變

中國古人敬天而不曾尊崇一位絕對全能之神。在這樣的世界裏,歷史和史學具有特出的文化地位。通過歷史記載和敍述,史學說明並論證着關於天道、人世,以及文化和政治認同等各項基本理念,也驗證着君主統治的正當性。漢代獨尊儒術後,史學的功能有所變化,但仍注重記録和傳承,並越來越帶有守先待後的含義。歷史撰述的體制化帶來相應的約束,爲野史和傳說留下了發展的空間。不間斷的正史、相對隨意的野史,以及伸縮靈動的民間傳說,共同構成了今天的"歷史知識"。這一切都因19世紀西方對中國的入侵而改變,不僅史學的社會地位摇擺不定,學校和公衆所關注的歷史内容也有很大的改變,出現了一些帶有西方特色的中國歷史言說。     

A Brief History of Evolution

I present in this paper a non-reductionist framework of eight nested modes of evolution that have successively emerged to organize the reproduction of all organisms, from the blue-green algae to our societies. The processes of biological, “Darwinian” evolution are those of drift during reproduction, and of selection. The key unit of evolutionary time is the generation, and its locus is the organisms' life-cycle setup. Different life-cycle setups support different mechanisms of reproduction, and therefore different modes of evolution. By tracing the different life-cycle setups attested throughout life's history, we can characterize the successive modes of evolution with which they are associated as follows: basic; reptilian; archaic mammalian; progressive mammalian; sociocultural; extrasomatically enhanced sociocultural; tinkering; and finally parabiological. These successively emerging modes govern a progressively reduced number of life-forms. The first four modes are “Darwinian” in the strict sense. The fifth, or sociocultural mode, which governs whales and elephants' societies in addition to hominoids, is already not “Darwinian” in the traditional sense. The last three modes have emerged with the genus homo, through the progressive extension of its life-cycle setups. The present framework is to be used heuristically, as a prism with which to separate the evolutionary spectrum of the constituent elements of human behavior. An example of such a behavioral evolutionary spectrum is presented in conclusion, and used to compare the present framework with those recently proposed by Maynard Smith and Szathmáry and by Foley.     

第13届全国史学理论研讨会综述

2006年11月5日至7日,第13届全国史学理论研讨会在美丽的西子湖畔召开。这次会议由中国社会科学院史学理论研究中心、中国史学会史学理论研究分会、中国社会科学院《史学理论研究》编辑部和史学理论重点学科、浙江大学历史系及浙江省历史学会联合主办。来自全国的近五十位史学理论工作者参加了此次研讨会,会议共收到论文四十余篇。会议围绕着中外历史哲学问题、文化与文明问题、世界历史与现代世界体系问题、全球化与全球史问题、西方马克思主义史学问题、西方主要史学流派、传统史学、史料学、史学的问题意识与现实关注等问题,展开了深入的交流和坦诚、热烈的讨论。     

中国社会科学院召开第四届史学理论研讨会

2004年10月23日至25日,中国社会科学院历史研究所、近代史研究所、世界历史研究所、当代中国研究所、考古研究所、边疆史地中心、《历史研究》杂志社和地方志办公室,在广东省珠海市召开了第四届史学理论研讨会。与会者十分关注近年历史研究出现的新变化、在新特点、新问题,并从各自的研究领域出发,进行了内容广泛的交流,     

世界历史进程中的马克思世界历史理论

经济全球化的日益发展对历史学提出了新的理论挑战,这就是究竟如何避免各种片面和局限,构建科学和系统的世界历史阐释体系。这一时代要求进一步凸显了马克思世界历史理论的科学性和重要性。马克思世界历史理论是世界历史发展进程中的产物,同时也深刻揭示了世界历史形成和演变的内在规律,为我们认识、理解和把握世界历史的整体发展指明了基本方向。它通过深入揭示生产力因素在人类社会发展过程中所发挥的决定性作用,为我们深入理解人类历史和改造世界提供了科学的理论与方法论支持,并且为当代的世界史或全球史的研究和编纂提供了具有方法论意义的科学指南。     

History and the Scientific Worldview

Worldviews affect human behavior, and how we behave affects the world around us. Animism and so-called higher religions remain influential worldviews; but the scientific worldview is comparably significant, and has undergone drastic change during the twentieth century. The physical science ideal of mathematical precision and predictability, as elaborated by Galileo, Newton, and their heirs, underwent an amazing transformation in the twentieth century when Big Bang cosmology substituted an expanding, unstable universe for the Newtonian world machine. As a result, a grand convergence of the sciences seems to be emerging around an evolutionary vision of how new aspects of reality emerge locally from new levels of complexity, like the heavier atoms, forged in stellar furnaces, the living molecules that arose in earth's primordial seas, and the symbolic systems invented by human societies perhaps as recently as forty thousand years ago. History, once a hopelessly inexact laggard among the sciences, might even become something of a model for other disciplines, since it deals with the most complex levels of reality we are aware of, that is, the world of agreed-upon meanings that guides our interaction with one another and with the biological, chemical, and physical worlds around us.     

Evolutionary Theory of History

Several attempts have been made recently to apply Darwinian evolutionary theory to the study of culture change and social history. The essential elements in such a theory are that variations occur in a population, and that a process of selective retention operates during their replication and transmission. Location of such variable "units" in the semantic structure of cognition provides the individual psychological basis for an evolutionary theory of history. Selection operates on both the level of cognition and on its "phenotypic" expression in action in relation to individual preferred sources of psychological satisfaction. Social power comprises the principal selective forces within the sociocultural environment. Sociocultural evolution takes place both as a result of the unintended consequences of action and through the struggle of individuals and groups in pursuit of opposing interests. The implications for historiography are methodological in that evolutionary theory of history sharpens the focus of explanatory situational analysis, and interpretive in that it provides a paradigmatic metanarrative for the understanding of historical change.     

世界史的学科定位与发展方向-在“新世纪世界史学科建设”学术研讨会上的讲话

在新世纪的第一个十年里 ,几乎所有的行业都在以一种紧迫感梳理着自己的工作 ,思考着自己的未来 ;而我们这些以探索时间的轨迹为本行的史学工作者 ,就更是深深地感到人类社会前进的脚步正在由远而近 ,逐渐加速 ,从以千年计 ,到以百年计 ,以十年计 ,直到今天 ,已是名副其实的日新月异了。在这种形势下 ,我们来探讨世界史学科的自身建设和发展问题 ,不但是十分必要的 ,而且是很有意义的 ,对于这个问题 ,我想讲两点看法。一、关于世界史的学科定位定位 ,就是要找准学科的位置。而要找准位置 ,就必须处理好各种各样的关系 ,在目前的形势下 ,特别…     

贯彻《山东省史志工作条例》见成效

本文指出新时期山东省地方史志工作取得的巨大成绩和存在的不足,针对存在的问题提出依法修志的必要性,并用山东各市县具体实例说明贯彻落实《山东省地方史志工作条例》所取得的成效。     

世界历史的分期与国际体系的演变

本在介绍、分析和批判西方学术界世界历史权威分期法的同时,从国际体系演变的角度,提出了人类从60,000年前分散的采猎群到今天全球经济政治高度一体化的新的历史分期法。作以一种全新博大的历史观对西方历史学和国际关系学两大领域的主流理论提出了挑战。本译自作《世界史中的国际体系：国际关系研究的再构建》一书。作认为正是由于历史研究的匮乏,致使西方主流国际关系理论陷于只能孤芳自赏的境地。而只有融理论研究于历史探讨,建立一个超越现有诸种框架之上的新时空观,国际关系研究才能走出误区,真正对社会现实和其他学科产生影响。