People at all levels show remarkable tenacity in clinging to beliefs in the face of overwhelming evidence. Such factors defeat any attempt to reconstruct a full picture by rationalist historians. At most this procedure can produce only a partial reality. It would be more than possible to indulge myself at greater length, but I hope sufficient has been said to indicate my concerns, not only for myself, but also for the wider and long-term benefits of our subject. My aim is debate, my plea for tolerance.
History can accommodate many approaches.
One's choice of subject and of exposition has much to do with one's personality or aspects of it. Academic freedom is not merely something to be protected from outside forces, but something to be promoted within a discipline. We too are a part of the world and not everything we do requires that we adopt a stance at a distance from it. With due acknowledgement to the firmer bases of fact and philology and a recognition that writing should demonstrate some quality, I should like it to be accepted that I should try to come to terms with my subjectivity and to probe the real world of antiquity. Return to text 2 Fischer 216.