Northcott, Robert (2026) Historical Necessity. [Preprint]
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2026 JPOH, 'Historical necessity'.docx Download (80kB) |
Abstract
“World War One was inevitable.” What sense can we make of such claims? I use recent work in philosophy of science to define historical necessity in terms of causal sensitivity. This implies that it must be understood in a relativized way, and that it is a property of historical explanations rather than of history itself. I then explore how historical necessity relates to chance and determinism, how it relates to predictability, and how the concept can be used by historians, social scientists, and others.
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| Item Type: | Preprint | ||||||
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| Keywords: | Necessity, contingency, explanation, objective, chance, determinism, predictability | ||||||
| Subjects: | General Issues > Determinism/Indeterminism General Issues > Explanation Specific Sciences > Historical Sciences |
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| Depositing User: | Professor Robert Northcott | ||||||
| Date Deposited: | 21 Feb 2026 20:25 | ||||||
| Last Modified: | 21 Feb 2026 20:25 | ||||||
| Item ID: | 28298 | ||||||
| Subjects: | General Issues > Determinism/Indeterminism General Issues > Explanation Specific Sciences > Historical Sciences |
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| Date: | 1 January 2026 | ||||||
| URI: | https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/id/eprint/28298 |
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