History and political science Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

History and political science - Essay Example Some of the ancient theorists are the Marxists and empiricists. Marxists focused on the issue of communism and capitalism1. Karl Marx is among the many known historians who led to the development of the Marxist theory. Therefore, it is necessary to address a number of theories developed by these historians. Numerous reasons are accountable for the difference in interpretations of history as depicted by varied historians. First, historians existed at dissimilar times and thus encountered different life occurrences. For instance, the ancient historians majorly tried to put into history the occurrences that people had not given attention2. This is a category of individuals, who ventured majorly in the explanation of the origin of humanity and the social classes. In an appropriate explanation of why historians have such different interpretations of history, it is crucial to examine the works of Karl Marx3. Marx is highly renowned due to his Marxist theory. Karl Marx is among the ancient historians born in Germany in 1818 and his works contributed mightily to history. Marx existed during a period coupled with many revolutions. As a result, together with his collaborator, he developed several ideas from their life experiences. Karl’s closest friend, Friedrich Engels worked together in writing the history. As opposed to ancient historians, modern and postmodern historians depict a different way of interpreting history4. The key reason behind their interpretation is the developments that have occurred recently. In addition to the developments, the availability of the secondary information sources in national archives and libraries facilitates the process of interpreting history5. Such resources normally compare the ancient history with the current, thus coming up with an accurate, as well as informed explanation of the key historical happenings. The question also demands an explanation on how different historians interpret history in a dissimilar manner. In answ ering the above question, it will be necessary to focus on some of the historians’ interpretations about history. An ancient historian whose name is Karl Marx contributed significantly in history. He interpreted history by giving a lot of attention to materialistic bit of it6. As a result, the phrase historical materialism came into existence. The literature has revealed that he concentrated on both physiological, as well as the material needs. He disputed the idea of a complete satisfaction of an individual’s both physiological, as well as materialistic needs. He thus concluded that the ease at which to access such materials determines the nature of a society hence the birth of the phrase history of humanity. He also established three ways in which human society changes and all of them were dependent on the level of production. In addition to the Karl’s interpretation of history, other historians such empiricists have different interpretations7. Empiricists emp loy scientific principles in understanding how history has been changing over time. They insist the implication of applying knowledge in order to understand the key historical events. In the information collection process, they stress on the authenticity of the resources used in maintaining the accuracy of information. They aim at visiting the main international archives thus collecting the most accurate information for interpretation purposes. Among all the theories described in the book, I feel comfortable with the empiricist theory. The above is a theory based on knowledge, as well as epistemology8. Scholars define epistemology as the study of knowledge. The empiricists majorly center their work on craft. The issue of craft highly concentrates on knowledge and skill. The empiricism is an