Original scientific paper

Historiography – the weakest link in Petrić’s science chain

Heda Festini ; Rijeka, Hrvatska

Abstract

In two his works Petrić interpreted mathematics and history as sciences, on the basis of which we can speak of Petrić’s science chain: from mathematics across natural sciences to history, mathematics being the strongest and history the weakest link in that chain.
In order to grasp Petrić’s understanding of history, two interpretations ought to be discarded: 1. close correlation of history with political philosophy; 2. understanding of history as a geometrical structure. From Petrić’s Della historia diece dialoghi (Ten dialogues of history, 1560) it is quite clear that he understood history as a narration, the credibility of which should rest on the established criteria. While in his Discussiones peripateticae (1581) he often referred to the notion of cause (causa), in his earlier dialogues on history, without exception, he referred to the notion of cagione, which, however, is not interpreted here within the cause-consequence pair, but within the occurrence-effect pair.
The article provides two fresh insights: 1. a well-grounded view of the place of mathematics and history in Petrić’s science chain, 2. explanation of the terminological distinction between cagione and causa from the perspective of Petrić’s Ten dialogues of history. A parallel between the mentioned insights and the research into Petrić’s approach to history conducted to date contributes to a more solid interpretation of his antideterministic understanding of history.

Keywords

Frane Petrić; mathematics; history; ‘cagione’; ‘causa’

Hrčak ID:

178823

URI

https://hrcak.srce.hr/178823

Publication date:

29.3.2017.

Article data in other languages: croatian

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