ABSTRACT
History quizzes and multiple-choice tests for history students depend on the assumption that some statements about the past can be regarded as right and others as wrong, and that we have ways of telling the ones from the others. If we were asked where it was that Captain James Cook’s ship Endeavour landed on 29 April 1770 and we replied ‘Brazil’, we would have given a wrong answer. Let us say, for the sake of argument, that the ‘right’ answer is Botany Bay in Sydney, Australia. Separating right from wrong statements about the past at this level of knowledge is usually a simple procedure. We can use different types of texts (reference books, historical accounts, primary sources) to help us decide whether a particular proposition about the past is right or wrong, true or false. In the end, this method for establishing correct facts about the past depends on whether we can corroborate those facts by citing observable data – in other words, empiricism. If we want to confi rm where the Endeavour landed on 29 April 1770 we can read Captain Cook’s journals of his voyage and put the matter seemingly beyond doubt.
