In order to develop a historical research it is necessary to have a mature relation with the history to be researched. That implies having a respectful and adapted attitude towards the specific reality and having the need to unveil the history to add value to the environment.
Rationalistic approaches lead, in the best case, to interpretative and descriptive historical researches.
The methodological steps to follow in the research are:
1. Detailed description of the chronicle of the history under research. It includes only the restrictive context defining the beneficiaries and the damaged of each event.
2. Isolate the most significant events. Significance is defined by the importance of the benefits and the damage of events.
3. Define the events as objects (see glossary), describing the driving function, the energy conservation function and the purpose of each event.
4. Describe the driving function, the energy conservation function and the purpose of the context of the event.
5. Build a concept map of the history under research.
6. Evaluate the evolution occurred in the context after the event occurred.
7. Redefine the event considering its significance in the environment.
8. Describe the events structured by the knowledge of the anthropological invariables. It includes a functional description of the events and the functional relations between them.
9. Describe the events structured by the knowledge of the ontological structure of the reality under research.
10. Analyze the taboos which are affected by the historical research.
11. Publish the history that can be accepted by the environment under research.
12. Keep the non-published information in a special file so it can be published when the appropriate time has come.
Conclusions
Doing historical research implies making a diagnosis of a given reality. Therefore it must be considered that the language to be used is not only the scientific one but also the language that can be read and accepted by the members of the community or institution involved.
That is why historical information is often considered classified to avoid damaging publics’ feelings.
History researchers have to be aware that they deal with the taboos, myths and utopias of the community. Dealing with these subjects requires a respectful, careful and subtle approach to scientific knowledge.
To be able to understand this methodology, it is necessary to comprehend the unicist methodology of complex systems research and the unicist ontology of evolution.
We invite you to be our guest at the Unicist Library to learn about “Beyond Taboos – The Unicist Ontology of History ”:
http://www.unicist.com/futureresearch/
Peter Belohlavek
NOTE: The Unicist Research Institute is a pioneer in complexity science research. More than 4,000 ontological researches were developed since 1976 until July 2011 in the field of individual, institutional and social evolution, including the development of ontology based and business object driven solutions for businesses.