Ans. Causation is one of the most important historiography tool which helps in history writing. A cause is basically a condition that is both necessary and sufficient for bringing about an event. It is a condition that is always present when the event ‘E’ occurs and always absent when the event ‘E’ doesn`t occur. Like social scientists, historians provide complete explanation of the phenomenon under consideration by determining what caused that event to occur. The search for causes, that is, causation is an important part of historical analysis. In word`s of E.J.Tapps, “without a concept of causation, there is no history”. Causation plays a vital role in providing coherent and intelligible explanation of the past.
Until 18th century, historians believed
that cause must be an antecedent event occurring prior to the explained event.
But following the works of scholars like John S. Mill, cause is no longer
identified as just an event that occurred before. It is considered as
condition, all set of conditions, that are always present when the event E
occurs and always absent when event E doesn`t occur. The cause, in other words,
is a condition that is both necessary and sufficient for bringing about the
given event E.
The relationship of necessity is different from
sufficiency. In philosophies of science, the cause has been conceived as being
both conditions. If the cause is a necessary and sufficient condition, it
implies that it is regularly associated with the given effect. Thus constant
conjunction is an important characteristic of causation. However, it is
important to note that regular association is not in itself sufficient for claiming
that condition that is observed first is the cause of event which comes after.
Also listing of events in sequential order doesn`t provide explanation of an
event. For example, historian may place events that occurred from Jan to Aug,
1947 in proper sequence but that wouldn`t explain why the British left India in
1947. The explanation of question why often requires that we show that presence
of particular condition that may have come before produced the event and
absence of that condition may have meant non-occurrence of that event.
James Brien in his work, “Causation in History”,
narrates that causal relationships are essential to establish historical
explanation and adding in understanding the past. He stated that causation is
considered as a great central pillar of Historical Thinking. Historians focus
on the surrounding dimensions of a particular phenomenon while looking at the
causes of an event. They do not look at general category of conditions to find
an explanation for why.
According to historians, in general, explanation
and perdition are two different kinds of activities. They do not believe in
prediction to interpret an event. Thus in history the inextricable link of
prediction and explanation as in empirical science has been questioned. Historians
without offering predictions can provide complete explanation of why a
particular event occurred. The historians by de-linking explanation from
prediction challenge the general model of explanation and hence redefine the
concept of causation. Instead of seeing cause as a ‘necessary and sufficient
condition’ they see it as ‘condition that is necessary under the circumstances’.
There may be more than two causal conditions and each of them could have separately
produced the same results. In that case historians say analysts have to find
out a condition that is necessary under the circumstances.
For establishing the causality and explaining the occurrence
of an event, historians look for the evidence is taken from inside the event
under study to back their theory and explanations, comparisons are made with
analogous situations and perceptions of different agents are used to find
significance of different existing conditions.
Historians explain given event by describing how it
happened. The causal analysis of a historical event locates a necessary movement
that may be a single condition or a part of complex conditions. For instance,
while analyzing the issue of power transfer to India in 1947, a historian may
argue that naval ratings mutiny was the causal condition making a crucial
difference. In contrast to it, historians may argue that naval rank mutiny was
necessary movement for set of popular mobilizations that collectively resulted
in the transfer of power. Historians redefine the idea of causality regarding
condition as necessary under circumstances. It is so because they deal with
unique events. In this way the explanation is complete but post hoc. They explain
fully what happened and why it happened but do not predict at large. They go
for causal analysis of historical events raising questions to go deep into
event in a critical angle to find out the cause. While analyzing the facts,
historians put effort to know what, how and why with regard to phenomena. With these
answers they pinpoint a condition that is necessary under circumstances. Also
the historians look at the intention and motivation of the people involved in
particular incident to know the cause of phenomenon.
Conclusion
Like other natural and social sciences, history too
addresses the why interrogative. Historians study the past, they try to explain
why a particular event did or didn`t occur. The search for causes is crucial to
historical analysis. The causes are not specific events which occur before
certain other specific events which occur before certain other events whose
origins can then be traced back to the former. Rather the causes are conceived
as a set of conditions under which particular events take place. These conditions
provide both, necessary and sufficient ground for the occurrence of certain
events. However, the search for causes in history cannot be conducted in a
controlled atmosphere as in a laboratory; social scientists look for similar and
different conditions for the occurrence of an event. The causation are
generally sought to explain a phenomenon and not to predict it.
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