University of Liege | Version française
Academic year 2014-2015Value date : 12/05/2015
GEOG0208-1  Elements of Historical Criticism for the use of Geographers

Duration :  30h Th
Number of credits :  
Bachelor in geographical sciences, general orientation, 2nd year3
One-year preliminary programme leading to the Master in Geographical Sciences, Climatology orientation3
Lecturer :  Pierre Alexandre
Language(s) of instruction :  
French language
Organisation and examination :  
Teaching in the second semester
Course contents :  
A. ELEMENTS OF HISTORICAL CRITICISM

1. Notions of historical truth, historical fact, and historical source.

2. Different kinds of sources: material, oral and written sources.

3. Searching and reading the past written sources.

4. Criticism of the written sources: external and internal criticism of the document.

5. Glimpse at the main chronological customs of the past.

6. Auxiliary Sciences of History.


B. CONCRETE APPLICATION OF THE METHODS OF HISTORICAL CRITICISM

An overview of the methods of historical criticism - in particular those of the external and internal criticism of the written sources - will be highlight in the field of the History of natural phenomena and environment. On the one hand it will be shown how neglecting these methods led some climatologists and seismologists to produce worthless compilations of data about past meteorological and seismological events; and on the other hand how elaborating new catalogues of data, according to the rules of the criticism of sources, can contribute to the knowledge of long-term climatic variations, floods in the past, evolution of vegetation and crops, assessment of seismical risk, etc.



C. SOURCES OF THE HISTORICAL GEOGRAPHY

From the perspective of the criticism of sources, some main sources of historical geography will be presented:

1. Toponyms: formation and transformation of place names and choronyms.

2. Greek and Roman geographers and cartographers (Strabon, Ptolemy, etc.), Arab geographers of the Middle Ages, Chinese sources, geographical sources of mediaeval and Renaissance Europe, etc.
Learning outcomes of the course :  
History and Geography are two complementary disciplines, using documents; the objective of the course is to present the main rules of the historical criticism, applicable to wriiten sources likely to interest the geographers.
Prerequisites and co-requisites/ Recommended optional programme components :  
Knowledge of the French language.
Planned learning activities and teaching methods :  
Mode of delivery (face-to-face ; distance-learning) :  
See : http://cipl82.philo.ulg.ac.be/horaires
Recommended or required readings :  
The framework of the course and some documents showed during the lessons will be available on e eCampus
Assessment methods and criteria :  
Written examination.
Work placement(s) :  
Organizational remarks :  
...
Contacts :  
Pierre ALEXANDRE
Département des Sciences historiques - Bât. A4, Université de Liège, Quai Roosevelt, 1B, 4000 LIEGE.
e-mail : Pierre.Alexandre@ulg.ac.be



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