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HISTORIAS                    Manuel Espejo

History Seen as Res Gestae and History Seen as a System

History can be seen, broadly speaking, as res gestae, that is, as the story of the things that have happened, and it can also be seen as a system, that is, as a set of interrelated events. When we speak here of a system, despite the terminological coincidence, this concept must not be confused with Ortega's thought, but rather it must be related to what has been said and written since von Bertalanffy.

Either of these two approaches to History is correct. Neither of the two contradicts the other. They are complementary and not excluding. However, most of official history studies this discipline as the account of events that have happened, while only sparingly considers events as part of a larger context.

Let's go back a step. I think anyone understands what history means as a report of what has happened, that is, history as res gestae. However, what is here called history as a system?

History, in addition to an account of events that have happened, can be seen as a system of events that occur through time. Why does history constitute a system? Because history consists of events that do not occur in isolation, but that can be circumscribed within a specific and broader context. That is to say, the events that are listed and described in what we call history as res gestae are not events that are disconnected from each other, but rather are concatenated, intertwined, related, they interact, and are simultaneously cause and consequence of each other. That is why the facts form a system.

With this idea in mind, we can take another step towards defining history as a system. The events are interwoven with each other, and are part or are the consequence of forces, impulses and initiatives that are produced and developed from individual or collective decision-makers (people, social groups, political parties, etc.) who act motivated by different interests, beliefs, ideologies, passions, etc. That is, the historical system defined as res gestae influences, and it is influenced by other systems that exist within a social unit. Because of this, those historical facts that are not analysed and studied in a systemic framework become like a cardboard manikin (so to speak), and their historical perspective is lost.

Where can be these other systems clearly appreciated in the study of historical events called here as res gestae? In a phenomenon that it has been scarcely studied by historians, although it is fundamental: the regularity of certain social phenomena in time and space.

Every historical fact (or non-historical, we could say every human fact) is nothing else that a widely considered social phenomenon. Any human fact, in one way or another, has a social significance since humankind is an intrinsically social living species. The regularities are observed in social events in all kinds of cultures, societies, and countries. This does not mean that everything is always the alike in all places and circumstances, but that there are functions and needs that repeat themselves and that must be carried out and/or always satisfied in all places and circumstances. The solutions given to these functions and to these needs are not always alike, although their premises tend to be. The existence of these functions and these needs means that, given certain circumstances, the consequences of the same functions, needs and circumstances are manifested with regularities that are systemic in nature. For example, social production is a need of every human social group, as is the physical reproduction of the individuals that make up the social group, in the same way as the need for a social order that allows social life, etc. All these social functions generate the need to regulate social life. In other words, human events within a social group must be channelled through the implementation of individual and social patterns of behaviour. The social group is articulated around norms and patterns of behaviour that are systemic and consistent with the physical-biological and social environment within the social group. Within this context, the historical fact, being only a form of human fact, is systemically related to the whole of the human social system, which is the set of many other interrelated economic, ideological, legal, social subsystems, etc., which all together are intertwined making a social unity out of it.  

In conclusion, the historical fact is not an isolated event, but it belongs to a much larger set of human structures, of which we only see its surface if we study history only under a res gestae perspective. A historical fact is only an atom within the greater universe of History. Accumulated historical facts are not History, but only a part of it. In addition to historical facts, History has historical relationships and regularities. It is not stated here that History has laws, which is another matter, although we can see that History has relationships and regularities, which are knowable, quantifiable, and capable to be analysed through scientific procedures.

Most of the history books deal with historical facts, and very few are dedicated to the analysis of the history seen as a system of facts. History is therefore the account of the events that have happened (that is, history in lower case) plus the system that unites some events and others (that is, History in capital letters).

For this reason, History can be explained without the need to list battles, or narrate individual events, but rather as a flow of situations that trigger events, and that in similar circumstances produce similar consequences. In a nutshell: there is an order in the historical evolution, which is not necessarily teleological, but that can be grouped into something that could be qualified rather as a tendency than a deterministic feature, in the way that can be observed in the natural laws.

For all the above, we must detract a little our interest from historical facts to study and teach more about the historical relationships that, together with the historical facts, make up the History (with capital letters).

This is not necessarily doing philosophy of history. This is to make the story positive, that is, to find rules that allow us to understand the story in addition to knowing its facts.

It is not the same, as it were, to speak of A B C D E F... that of the ABC system.

The first is history as a res gestae.

The second is History, which includes all the letters of the alphabet, plus the intrinsic order within it.

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