ScSc 12n – Readings in Philippine History

Lesson 1.1: Nature, Types, and Relevance

of History

Lesson Summary
This lesson focuses on the understanding of the nature of history and
its meaning and relevance. Added topics discussed in this lesson are the
different types of history that are based on the forms of practicing history and
how history is written.

Learning Outcomes
At the end of this lesson, you are expected to:
1. Explain the meaning and relevance of studying history.
2. Determine the different types of history and their focus on the study.
3. Respond to the challenge of historical revisionism through articulating
the uses and importance of studying history.

Motivation Question
Imagine looking at a
photo of your former love.
You wonder why it’s
over, what went wrong, what
could you have done better,
and how have you been so
far. On a personal scale, all
these questions you ask are
similar to studying history.
Now, what is history,
and why is it relevant?
How does history give
meaning to the present if it
speaks about the past?

Discussion

Meaning and Relevance of History

To speak of history, the first thing that comes to our minds is about the
events in the past. There is no other way to define history but to talk about the
 ScSc 12n – Readings in Philippine History

past. However, with history, it is not just about talking about the events in the
past. There is more in history that we can get from, because if we only look at
history as events in the past, somehow there is nothing special to it.
Considering that we spend so much time talking about the past, then there
must be something that we can learn from it. If you can imagine, we started
learning about history in elementary, high school, and then in college. Within
the course of our educational years, all things mentioned about Philippine
history are just the same. With this realization, the Commission on Higher
Education made some changes to the approaches and strategies of studying
history, specifically Philippine history. The purpose is to create a shift from
learning to the plain narrative to learning by exposing the students to the
primary and secondary sources, allowing the students to be critical and
analytical in dealing with the sources and expose them to the different facets
of Philippine history through the lens of eyewitnesses (CHED, 2017).
We can define history as everything that has happened in the past or an
account of the past. According to James Davidson and Mark Lytle (1982),
“History is not what happened in the past; rather, it is the act of selecting,
analyzing, and writing about the past…” From here, we can then say that there
is more to history than just the plain narratives. To study history, one has to be
critical and analyze if everything that was written, primary or secondary, is
factual or not, and is not biased. Thus, history, therefore, is about the past and
the study of the past. Let us take this scenario, one night, you and your friend
are walking towards the town plaza. Suddenly, a power outage came, so
everything went dark. Your friend happened to bring his flashlight. As you
continued walking, you passed by an abandoned building your friend was
family with. Thus, you keep asking questions about its background. Your friend
did not hesitate to share information about the
building by pointing some of its portions using
his flashlight. In this situation, everything in the
dark landscape is the whole history, while your
friend holding the flashlight is the historian.
This analogy gives us an idea of the nature of
history. It is vast, causing the historian to only
speak of the portions of the total past. Hence,
it is imperfect, for none can present the past as
it was. Like in the previous situation, we can
only see what is illuminated by your friend.

Figure 1 Representation of the nature of history

 ScSc 12n – Readings in Philippine History

On the part of the historian, the selected happenings are not only
narrated but are also analyzed. The result of this analysis is an interpretation.
The interpretation becomes a creation based on the events that took place in
the past. Sometimes, this could lead us into thinking, is history an act of
creation or an act of recreation? If we say that it is an act of creation, it is based
on an individualistic perspective. With individualism, certain factors may have
affected or influenced the writer’s views. These views would create history out
of history. That is why, in the old practice, students were only exposed to
reading secondary source materials. What about recreating history? To
recreate history means to give new life and meaning to the forgotten past. This
recreation is one way of innovative interpretation to allow the new generation
to engage in discovering the meaning and significance of the past. With this
time of age, technology has given much influence. Thus, one of the goals of the
21st Century education is to adopt the approaches and strategies of learning
into the digital world. It is always in the hope of historians that museums will
soon be digitally interactive. In the classroom settings, there would at least
have easy access to the digitized primary and secondary sources.
In the context of the Philippines, this may be too ideal considering the
kind of technology that we have. Nonetheless, historians are hopeful enough
that in time, this will soon be realized. Another nature of history that we can
consider is that it studies the present in light of the past (Pallavi, Jyotrimayee,
& Harichandan, 2019). Historians always rely on the surviving records. That is
the primary way that they get a view of the past and reflect on it. Reflection on
the documents is a way of learning by inquiry. Again, what we know about
certain events in the past are just portions of the whole. If a specific event
catches your interest, you will always have to refer to the surviving records.
Where do you go to retrieve such records? There are a lot of options for places
to visit and retrieve the information you need, which will be discussed in
locating sources of history (Lesson 2).

Types of History

Historian’s reliability on the surviving records implies their fallibility.

That means that they are prone to committing errors. No matter how they try
not to be biased on their analysis and interpretation, there is still that tendency
to be so. Despite the idiosyncrasies, there are two theories or types of history
that we can consider. These are Factual history and Speculative history. Before
we connect factual and speculative to history, let us first understand the terms
literally. “Factual” means that it is something that can be proven or has already
been proven by some means. But when we say “speculative,” that means it is
something that can be viewed from a different theoretical perspective or lens.
When we say factual history, it is to show proof and validity. It tries to analyze
by answering the 3Wh questions: What, Who, and When. The “what” will identify
specific events in the past. There are many events in history that we can cite.
“Who” allows the historian to get to know the persons involved in the event.
The involvement of the personages also needs to be considered for others may
just have no significance. For instance, there are many persons involved in the
Cry of Balintawak, but history only mentions those people who have a
significant role in the said gathering. Another is that of Tirad pass, where
Gregorio del Pilar is the highlight, and the other Filipino troops who fought the
Americans were not given much recognition. The third question on factual
 ScSc 12n – Readings in Philippine History

history is “when.” Stating and determining the time and date of a particular
historical event will add accuracy and reliability. The second type of history is
called speculative history. This type of history answers the questions “why” and
“how.” This is a kind of inquiry that uses counterfactual speculation of
historical events to reflect our present society and the social construct of
memory (Lima-de-Oliveira & Fux, 2014). Mostly, those who already have a
background in history would always have questions in mind about particular
accounts. In Philippine history, for example, many events have a questionable
history. There is also the challenge of historical revisionism. Revisionism could
not be avoided because historians are justified in viewing an event from any
perspective they wish. This is very timely that CHED now is introducing a new
way of understanding history for the students to become more engaged and
more critical about the past.
A German philosopher by the name of Friedrich Nietzsche has also
identified three types of history: Monumental History, Antiquarian History, and
Critical History. These three are forms of practicing history, which is
advantageous to human life. According to him, “life is the pinnacle of human
existence, and it is exemplified by the will and the ability to create.” (McKinley,
2014).This type of history is very common to those people who have made
significant achievements and contributions to society, especially to the
country. This type of recognizing the great works of men and women is what
Nietzsche called monumental history. He was able to formulate such practice
of history for the fact that humans have, along with their knowledge of pre and
post existence, is the experience of life itself. This means that humans should
not make an unhistorical living. The way to make the experience of a great life
is to leave something for your memory to last forever. In the Philippines, this is
very common to great men and women who fought for the betterment of the
country. To name a few, we have Andres Bonifacio, Jose Rizal, Gregorio del
Pilar, Antonio Luna, Gabriela Silang and Diego Silang, and many others.
Nietzsche classifies heroes as either Victorian or modern-day heroes. The
names mentioned above are examples of Victorian heroes. The modern-day
heroes do not necessarily engage in wars and battles; instead, their
contribution has made great significance to the country.
The second type of history, according to Nietzsche, is Antiquarian
history. Antiquarian history gives reverence to the past, like the saving of the
old buildings. The National Historical Commission of the Philippines (NHCP) is
the one responsible for determining and declaring structures as national
heritage. The purpose of this antiquarian history is to preserve the past for
current and future admiration. This purpose is very challenging for the part of
the Filipinos because we still have not practiced this culture of preserving our
heritage. We always have this tendency to renovate the old structure to make
it new and adaptive to the latest trends. However, the problem with antiquarian
history is that there is a tendency to become stuck in the past. There are only
a few places in the places that hold and keep their cultural heritage like Vigan
City, Carcar City, Baguio, and Mountain Province.
The last type or way of practicing history is a critical history. This type
of history selects the best from the past to create and build a better future. In
this way, the critical historian judges interrogate and ultimately condemns the
past. It is where we try to look and analyze the stories told about that past and
sift those events that are worthy of continuation in the present (Halveron,
2015). It is also what CHED is trying to address by allowing the students to
 ScSc 12n – Readings in Philippine History

immerse themselves in the different primary and secondary sources. They will
have the opportunity to make their evaluation and formulate criticisms on the
various primary and secondary sources.

The Uses of History

After you have been introduced to the meaning and relevance of history
and its different types, we should probably already have an understanding of
its uses. It may sound boring and disinteresting, for we have already been
introduced to the many histories of the Philippines. Despite that, let us try to
identify some of the uses of history, why we still have to give importance to it.
History can be influential and shaping human affairs
Humanity revolves around history. It is only in history that we get to
know how people and societies behave. For instance, Filipinos would not have
an understanding of their own identity without referring to the kind of living to
the early ancestors. Filipinos would not have developed patriotism and
nationalism without looking at how the first Filipinos fought for their rights and
gain liberty from the colonizers. Developing such character is not something
done through experimentation and observation that can be studied by pure
sciences. Other significant aspects of mass relations also are caused by the
influence of history. Examples of this are national and local elections, military
tactics and alliances, religious missionaries and their activities, and many
others (Stearns, 1998). All these are just a few of the many things to prove how
history is influential in shaping human affairs. While it is true that the study of
history is not perfect, but at least it has many things to say about the past of
human civilization.
History provides informed perspectives about the world
History offers people an understanding of change, especially in getting
an understanding of how society came to be. The past events on human affairs
caused the evolution of the present and will eventually continue to change in
the future. We are always caught up with questions on how and why events
happened: pain, sufferings, and abuses experienced by the Filipinos during the
colonization; the impact of American occupation in the Philippines; the
challenge of patriotism and nationalism that the Filipinos faced the rise of the
different political parties; and many others. Each country has its history, and
through these histories, we are exposed to the different perspectives of the
world. From these varied perspectives, we begin to comprehend the factors
that shaped man’s quest for development and progress.
History is a guide on making judgments
This is always the challenge in contemporary times. With the rise of
revisionism, not just students of history are confused as to which sources of
history introduce factual and reliable information. With these new approaches
and strategies in studying history students will develop their skill in assessing
pieces of evidence. They will start to learn how to analyze and interpret one
evidence from the other to be able to reach a better judgment. Exposing the
students to the primary and secondary sources will improve their analytical
skills by analyzing their content and context. Thus, they will be able to critically
determine which source is objectively done and which are biased. With the
sources readily available, history indeed is a guide on making judgments.
 ScSc 12n – Readings in Philippine History

History provides a better understanding of the present situation

We are all familiar with the line, “History repeats itself,” do you agree on
this? What is your take on this statement? Some people would interpret this as
true because what happened in the past, has occurred in the present. For
instance, the pandemic that the world is fighting now is the same situation that
the world faced in the year 1918. The Spanish flu pandemic cost millions of
lives around the world, the Corona Virus – COVID19 does the same. The
ousting of the former president Ferdinand Marcos in 1986 echoed in 2001
during the presidency of Joseph Estrada. With these two events empowered
the women to take over the presidency, Cory Aquino became the President
after Marcos and Gloria Macapagal Arroyo after Estrada. There are many
events in the past that somehow repeated in the present. Some others would
disagree on the statement. For others, it is not history that is repeating itself
for history does not have the reason to do so. The reason for the events in the
past to reoccur is of man’s inability to realize and learn the lessons of those
events. Thus, it is man repeating the events in history. Man is the one in control
of the events in the present. Man does not have the right to blame the events
in the past for the wrong that he has done in the present and to the future.
Rather, the man should reflect on the events in the past to do better in the
present, and do his best in the future.

There are many uses of studying history. I only mentioned a few of its
many uses. From the things mentioned above we can conclude that history
involves the study of individual interpretations or versions of the past that is
unsettling. Indeed, history is not the lifeless study of the past. This is not just
about memorizing significant events in the past. We all have this thinking for
this is what we experienced before when we were in elementary and high
school. Learning how historians and the students of history think and
sharpening analytical and communication skills are essentials for success in
college and professional life. Lastly, the methods of history are not especially
complicated and confusing but still doing history is not altogether easy (Cunal
& Salevouris, 2015).