The Laws of Context
How Does Context Work in Historical Study?
Definition of Outside and Inside Knowledge: Context is an odd concept as, in this
case, it covers outside knowledge as well as inside knowledge. Therefore, I
will speak of it in terms of both concepts. Outside knowledge is information
about a later or earlier period in relation to the studied period, whereas
inside knowledge is information specifically from the studied period.
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Why do we call
things irrelevant? Because they go against the laws of context. Why do we call
things relevant? Because they obey the laws of context. Let me explain.
‘Context’ is a term of which I feel many individuals, unfortunately, forget the
importance. In fact, Dr. J. Scott Duvall and Dr. J. Daniel Hays state that
‘context determines meaning’[1]; I
am inclined to agree with them, for how can one interpret anything truly
without knowledge of context? Why would we, for example, assume that an
individual living in Jerusalem in the 1st century AD would not know
of the modern concept of feminism? If we assumed that this individual knew of
the modern concept of feminism, then we would be committing a crime against the
laws of context. While this seems obvious, I cannot stress its importance
enough. Context is something we keep in mind when making improvements on a
previous context (such as science, ethics, etc – there is a reason why we no
longer live in the feudal system), a lens with which we read or interpret
information, etc. Without context, nothing has meaning.
For example, if I
said that an event happened in the year 1195, I have immediately set up a
context that we cannot use our modern perspective to equate to, either
historically or culturally. When anyone sets up a context, certain laws that
define that context are non-vocally stated, hence why we can call certain
things relevant or irrelevant. Concerning the year 1195, its context does not
involve governmental sciences that stem from the Magna Carta, as this document
will not be signed for another twenty years; this context also means that there
is no idea of unalienable human rights, as documents that include these
concepts such as expressed in the United States have not been created as of
yet; this context includes that there have been no revolutionary influences
that sparked the Enlightenment in Europe, for that is a good six hundred years afterwards.
These are only some of the laws of context I have put in place by mentioning
the year 1195. Without knowledge of any of a context’s laws, then one can never
come to any form of understanding about that context’s period. The same works
for any other time in history.
However, to even
establish laws of context there need to be other contexts that must be
understood beforehand. For example, I would not be able to say that the year
1195 was twenty years before the Magna Carta without knowing the context of the
Magna Carta. In this way, context encapsulates its period and yet all other
periods at the same time; this is why I can speak of the year 1195 and yet
mention concepts such as human rights. I am not looking upon them as if within
the same historical or cultural period, for that would go against the laws of
context, but I am using one to help myself gain a contextual glimpse of
another. Who knew that knowing about the beginnings of human rights would help
the beginnings of one’s understanding of the year 1195?! As Mortimer states,
‘W.H. Auden once suggested that to understand your own country you need to have
lived in at least two others. One can say something similar to periods of time:
to understand your own century you need to have come to terms with at least two
others.’[2] In
this way, one uses outside knowledge (eg: rights of man not yet established) in
order to begin to create an understanding of the studied context (inside
knowledge).
This is how
context does not just, obviously, span the entirety of human history, it
additionally works together with other contexts that may not seem at first to
be related. As Hays and Duvall state: ‘context determines meaning’.
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