ACTA HISTORICA - A MTA TÖRTÉNETTUDOMÁNYI FOLYÓIRATA TOM. 14 (1968)

14. kötet / 1-2. sz. - ETUDES - R. VÁRKONYI: The Impact of Scientific Thinking on Hungarian Historiography about the Middle of the 19th Century

Acta Historica Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae, Tomus 14 (1—2), pp. 1—20 (1968) The impact of scientific thinking on Hungarian historiography about the middle of the 19th century by A. R. VÁRKONYI "Science is but one" wrote in 1842 János Irinyi, the famous Hungarian chemist, a well-known figure of the Reform Age and of the War of Independence of 1848—49, "and if we separate its parts from one another, these confines are marked out by our limited conceptions and not by science."1 This brief study entitled "Chemistry as the Guiding Star of Historiography" is exceedingly important for the history of science. On the one hand a very early suggestion is voiced here, advocating a method for determining the period, a method of which modern historical science has actually availed itself only in the last few years. As a matter of fact, says Irinyi the age of historical relics, viz. the place of origin and date of arms, tools, various metal instruments — could be defined the most reliably by chemical analysis. On the other hand, in his study he declared his adherence to the principle insisting on the unity of sciences where­by he joined the contemporary historico-philosophical trends the circle whose most characteristic representative was. A. Comte. All this is important because it calls the attention to the fact that at that time the dividing wall between the two fields of science, the natural sciences and historical science, was not so strong in Hungary as historiographie surveys would have us believe. In Hungary the history of relations between the natural sciences and historical science has almost remained a terra incognita up to the present day. The Hungarian followers of Dilthey's views, just like the master himself and the rest of his European pupils, conclusively separated the sciences concerned with the exploration of nature from those disclosing the past. These Hungarian historians and philosophers, Gyula Szekfű (1883 —1955), Bálint Hóman (1885 — 1953), Tivadar Thienemann (1890 — ), Gyula Kornis (1885 — 1958), were the first to investigate the history of Hungarian historiography of the 19th century within the framework of a wider conception. In the course of these studies, in the 1920s and 30s, the question was also raised whether scientific 1 IRINYI, JÁNOS: A vegytan mint vezércsillag a történettudományban. (Chemistry as the Guiding Star of Historiography) Athenaeum, 1842, II, No. 9. Acta Historica Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae 14t 1968 1

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