POLITYZACJA/MITOLOGIZACJA HISTORII, CZYLI W CZYM NEURONAUKA (I METODOLOGIA) MOŻE POMÓC BADACZOWI HISTORII NAJNOWSZEJ?

Abstrakt

The narratives created by historians with respect to events of the past serve not only the cognitive aims, but may also be used in the current discourse of power and as such be referred to as ‘historical politics’. In such cases the spotlight is no longer on the historical truth, but rather on the ability to legitimize the power exercised by one social group or political party over the rest of the society. The reason why one reaches for historical myth and politicizes historical narrative is that the emotions evoked in the process can access the mind of a common creator of history (homo historicus) much easier compared to historians’ refi ned analysis based on credible sources and proper methodology. From the perspective of historical politics, a historian – being a rational entity aware of its past (homo metahistoricus) – becomes something redundant, an obstacle that has to be silenced, suppressed or removed. All that matt ers is homo historicus, as it is the ballot in his or hers hand that will eventually determine winners and losers on election day. As is known, history writt en by the victors diff ers substantially from the one writt en by the defeated. Having diagnosed this way the situation relating to every historian aware of social responsibility of the results of historical studies, the author underlines that historical narrative may be applied to building both positive and negative social capital. Th e myth and politicization of history act toward dividing a community, rather than uniting it. Th ere is no way to create an eff ectively operating community without referring to past experiences, although when describing those experiences, it is very easy to fall into various traps of historical thinking. For this reason, neuroscience and methodology are of such a great importance to the historian of the 20th Century History.