ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the intellectual provincialism; the centrality of method; an awareness of history, since the presuppositions should be made explicit. Intellectual provincialism takes two forms. One of them consists of the hold that myths, ideologies, or biases can have upon the minds of men; and from the beginning of philosophy, social thinkers have sought for ways to transcend these limitations. In emphasizing the centrality of the humanities, there is no need to argue that poetic statement and metaphysical image are a truth larger than the empirical validations of science. In the humanities, knowledge is concentric; one moves within many different circles of meaning in the effort to attain, if ever, an understanding of a text and an experience. The simple point is that any discussion of history has to be more than the recital of "facts"—though knowledge of the facts many pedagogues now call for, in their horror at students' ignorance of simple basic chronology, is certainly necessary.
