Myśl metodologiczna Marcelego Handelsmana

Abstract

Marceli Handelsman, Professor of History at the Warsaw University was one of the most eminent scholars and researchers between of the Two World Wars. His brilliant papers dealt with various problems of maedieval and modem history. They are classical now but only a few know that methodology of history was among his main fields of interests, as well. The study consists of four parts. The first part discussed various models of research in history of historiography and then accounted a research strategy assumed here. It based on the conception of humanistic interpretation proposed by Poznan school of methodology. The second part tries to explain the development of M.Handelsman's conceptions by reconstructing his intellectual biography. The third part contains a reconstruction and an analysis of Handelsman's methodological vision of historical science. The vision consists of five systems of cathegories. They refer to: (1) conceptions of historical reality and the mechanism of generating history; (2) the historical epistemology; (3) the methodology of historical research, (4) the past and present of historical science , (5) so called „historiology” i.e. the social role of history. Interprelatins included here are related to methodological cathegories which were contemporary to Handelsman (so called „historical interpretation”). The last part of the study presents the methodological strategies used by Handelsman in his historical studies. They have been reconstructed by interpretations which are related to actual methodological knowledge (so called „adapted interpretation”. The paper demonstrates the coherence between methodological thoughts of the historian and his research practice. As a result the study demonstrates how Handelsman's research practice and his theoretical conceptions break away from tradition and transcend the level of its contemporary methodological experience.