medium · MCAT Critical Analysis & Reasoning Skills
Post-modern historiography challenges the 'grand narratives' of universal progress, suggesting instead that history is a series of fragmented power struggles. Foucault's 'archaeology' of knowledge demonstrates how systems of thought define what is even thinkable in a given era. In this view, the historian is not a seeker of truth but a cartographer of the shifting boundaries of discourse.
An assumption of the 'post-modern' view as described is that:
- The objective truth of the past is fundamentally inaccessible or non-existent.
- Systematic thought is independent of the power structures of a given era.
- Ancient archaeology provides more accurate data than modern textual analysis.
- Universal progress is an objective reality that historians must map.
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