Abstract

A model constructed from the "ideal observer" ethical theory accounts for many pervasive peculiarities of the craft of history and reflects central elements of the mind of the practicing historian. Both the ideal historian and the ideal observer can be characterized by the same adjec tives: omniscient, disinterested, dispassionate, consistent, objective, and empirical. In discussions of human conduct historians try to make evaluations from the point of view of an ideal observer. The historian's ideal of objectivity, his faith in a basic ontological structure which gives order and intelligibility to the world, and his "method of empathic understanding" are all illuminated by the model