In what ways do historians use reason as a tool in their search for historical knowledge?
Reasoning is the main tool when it comes to history. As history is knowledge shared by the world, and is only considered as history once it has been proved through solid evidence and reasoning. For example as the article mentioned, the terracotta warriors represents the number of guards in the imperial army, through that reasoning we know that these terracotta warriors did indeed belong to Qin Shihuang and is a piece of valuable history. By using this knowledge claim, they can also deduce that the Qin dynasty had horses in their imperial army as well. Just by finding historical evidence isn’t enough, historians must use their reasoning and compare these artifacts with other pieces of history to fit the puzzle all together. To make these artifacts a part of our world history, showing us that reasoning is indeed the most important tool in history.
In what ways might it be appropriate or inappropriate for a historian to use their imagination in their search for historical knowledge?
To search for the many pieces of history buried away with time, a certain amount of imagination is needed along the search. Sometimes pure logical reasoning can only take you so far, and once you reach a dead end, sometimes a spark of imagination can propel you forward once again. This