Causalidade e intencionalidade: uma contribuição ao debate sobre dimensão explicativa da historiografia

Abstract

The process of reconstructing the past comprises the explanatory procedure. Although relativized in recent decades, this article argues the need for emphasizing such procedure, based on the acknowledgment of the referent– representation relationship, which reintroduced the theme of historicity in the theory of history. My hypothesis states that historians’ reconstructive bases reinforce the role of intentionality as the structuring principle of historical explanation. Moreover, considering the multi-descriptive nature of historiography, which does not object to the core of tropological reflections, examining the internal logic of historical explanations counters relativistic theses – generally expressed in pseudo-historical arguments that confound different explanations with divergent explanations.