Leopold von Ranke (1 Viewer)

[Kujah]

"To make a true historian, I think that two qualities are needed, the first of which is a participation and joy in the particular in and for itself".

I've had discussions with my teacher and friends, I've searched the Web and thought about this quote for a couple of days already. But I still don't get it? What does von Ranke refer to when he states "joy in the particular"?

Any help will be appreciated

 

[Triangulum]

Prima facie, I assume he's talking about specifics and details, as in to be a successful historian you must be interested in details. That would seem to fit Ranke's general approach to history. But I could be wrong.

 

[xeuyrawp]

Prima facie, I assume he's talking about specifics and details, as in to be a successful historian you must be interested in details. That would seem to fit Ranke's general approach to history. But I could be wrong.

Yup, but interested in details because details should be interesting.

Later in that work (not sure where the quotation's from - I remember reading it somewhere), he outlines that a historian should be able to think and write objectively as naturally as someone admires a flower.

I think he means that his type of objectivism should be practiced so it comes naturally, otherwise the historian is either consistently being too subjective, or consistently forcing themselves to be objective - both of which are time consuming and ultimately bad for a scientific approach to history.

 

[Kujah]

In what way does it mean when they say that Ranke was against system building? Do we take that for a literal or religious/social sense?