Leading conceptions in the theory and historiography of sir Herbert Butterfield

Abstract

This thesis seeks to describe and discuss the leading conceptions and themes in the writings of Sir Herbert Butterfield. The Introduction is biographical in character. Chapter One discusses Butterfield's ideal of historiography as the authentic resurrection of 'the past' made possible by the exercise of 'sympathetic imagination'. Chapter Two focuses on Butterfield's The whig Interpretation of History (1931) with its rejection of moral judgements in historiography and advocacy of historiographical narratives consisting of only concrete, individual and particular statements and not in any way based on general propositions. Chapters Three and Four discuss Butterfield's Christian views of man and providence. Chapter Five discusses his conception of a non- or pre-interpretative 'technical history' first adumbrated in the 1931 volume, and suggests that Butterfield's own 'technical history' narratives are in fact based upon his own general propositions concerning the nature of man and Divine providence. Chapter Six discusses the implications of Butterfield's opposition to the 'structuralism' of the 'Namier School'. Chapter Seven examines the more important elements of Butterfield's work on the scientific revolution of the seventeenth century, and the significance of his concept of scientific change for his notion of 'technical history'. In the Conclusions an attempt is made to suggest ways whereby certain of the difficulties in Butterfield's formulations may be resolved.