Presentism (historical analysis)

Did You Know?

• Presentism has a shorter history in sociological analysis, where it has been used to describe technological determinists who interpret a change in behavior as starting with the introduction of a new technology.
• Scholars such as Frances Cairncross proclaimed that the Internet had led to 'the death of distance', but most community ties and many business ties had been transcontinental and even intercontinental for many years.
• The historian David Hackett Fischer identifies presentism as a fallacy also known as the 'fallacy of nunc pro tunc' (now for then).

Presentism in medieval studies

For medievalist scholars, presentism is a key idea that ties together how the Middle Ages have been depicted in later periods. Academics such as Louise D’Arcens and Kathleen Biddick argue that examining the medieval era through today’s critical frameworks is both valuable and unavoidable, treating it as a mirror that reveals histories of modern or postmodern identities. The main debate within the field concerns a double bind: whether the European Middle Ages serve as the origin or the non-origin of modern Western culture.

Moral judgments

Presentism is also a factor in the problematic question of history and moral judgments. Among historians, the orthodox view may be that reading modern notions of morality into the past is to commit the error of presentism. To avoid this, historians restrict themselves to describing what happened and attempt to refrain from using language that passes judgment. For example, when writing history about slavery in an era when the practice was widely accepted, letting that fact influence judgment about a group or individual would be presentist and thus should be avoided.

Critics respond that avoidance of presentism on issues such as slavery amounts to endorsement of the views of dominant groups, in this case, slaveholders, as against those who opposed them at the time. History professor Steven F. Lawson argues that to avoid moral judgments is to practice moral relativism. Some religious historians, including William of Ockham, Robert Merrihew Adams, and Philip L. Quinn, argue that morality is timeless, having been established by God; they say it is not anachronistic to apply timeless standards to the past.

Others argue that application of religious standards has varied over time as well. Augustine of Hippo, for example, holds that there exist timeless moral principles, but contends that certain practices such as polygamy were acceptable in the past because they were customary but now are neither customary nor acceptable. Fischer writes that while historians might not always manage to avoid the fallacy completely, they should at least try to be aware of their biases and write history in such a way that they do not create a distorted depiction of the past.