The Uses of Social Science Theory in History Writing

Taisu Zhang, Yale University

Drawing upon themes that the late Xiaohong Xu frequently discussed in his written work and lectures, this paper will consider the possibility of writing history “without theory,” specifically without a theory of causation and causality, as many historians now claim to do. It argues that meaningful historical significance is impossible to establish without such a theory, and that narrative historians cannot have it both ways: either they must tackle theories of causation head-on, or they must abandon the possibility of actively defining historical significance. It then discusses a number of issues that commonly arise when scholars explicitly use social scientific theories in history writing. While historians conventionally criticize “letting theory drive historical narrative,” the practice is, in fact, inevitable at some level of cognition and thinking, and therefore ultimately unavoidable. Our efforts are better spent on enhancing the flexibility of theoretical thinking, instead of futilely pretending that we can think without theory. Perhaps even more uncomfortably, the idea that historical significance can be meaningfully discussed without some sort of counterfactual thinking is also logically problematic. We should of course distinguish between good and bad forms of counterfactual thinking, but to disclaim the entire method creates many more problems then it solves.

No extended abstract or paper available

 Presented in Session 113. Commemorating Xiaohong Xu: Comparative Historical Methodology and China Studies