Historiografska misao dana: Werner Sombart (1929): “No theory ̶ no history!”

Werner Sombart još je daleke 1929. godine raspravljajući o tome jesu li teorija i povijest suprotstavljene jedna drugoj zagovarao nužnost teorije za povjesničare. Podsjetnik je to da povjesničari ne vode samo borbe oko interpretacije povijesti nego i o značenju koje pridaju teoriji.

 

Theoretical training alone makes the true historian. No theory-no history!

 

—

 

Werner Sombart

 

“Economic Theory and Economic History”

 

The Economic History Review, Vol. 2, No. 1 (Jan., 1929), pp. 1-19.

 

 

(1) The erroneous conceptions prevalent among historians spring from a misunderstanding of the correct relationship between theory and history. They rest on the mistaken idea that history can be approached without theory; and occasional attempts are even made to banish all theory from the investigation of historical reality.

 

(…)

 

The aim of the real historian, on the contrary, is “to describe things as they were.” Why is this view essentially wrong ? Are theory and history really opposed, and does one harm or exclude the other ? Are they not both required ? Is it not necessary that one should complement the other, and must not their combination be indispensable to any adequate investigation of real life ? What is the relation of theory to history ? The following pages are an attempt to answer these questions.

 

(…)

 

 

(3) In other words, the writer of history who desires to be more than a mere antiquarian must have a thorough theoretical training in those fields of inquiry with which his work is concerned. I need not add, of course, that he must be adequately equipped for handling his own special subject, must be skilled in the technique of his craft, and in particular must have a knowledge of sources and ability to criticize them. But technical equipment alone does not make a historian. If this is his sole qualification, he is destined to remain a mere “hodman,” performing only the most menial offices. Theoretical training alone makes the true historian. No theory-no history! Theory is the pre-requisite to any scientific writing of history.

 

(…)

 

(19) I claim for my work that it makes a contribution both to theory and to history. I trust that it may help to end the baseless hostility prevailing between economic theory and economic history. Theory  and history are not enemies. It is time that theorists and historians realized that work of permanent value can only be produced from their co-operation. To emphasize this, and thereby to vindicate my own life’s work, are the objects of this essay.