Source Criticism

E1　—　What to believe, what to doubt

"Money originated from barter" — We will verify this textbook explanation by returning to the oldest account books. This is the gateway to all subjects.

Supervised by: Mitsuru Hayama　／　Reading time (main text): course text ~8 min + textbook ~86 min = ~94 min　／　Beyond the text: 14 exercises · 4 coins · 10 readings · 3 references

What this course teaches you to do

• You can find a hedge in a passage and name which of the six types it is.
• You can explain why the difference between "is said to have" and "was" is decisive.
• On meeting a number, you can judge whether to trust its order of magnitude or its final digit.
• You can remove, from your own writing, claims that have no source.
• Can check the sources of famous sayings, principles, and anecdotes using three concrete examples.
• Can distinguish between and handle three types of "absence": unrecorded, lost, and non-existent from the start.

TEXTBOOK

Lessons (8)

1. "Everybody knows" is not the same as "somebody checked"The number of citations is not evidence. Only sources are.
2. There are six kinds of hedgeA hedge is not the writer's weakness but the mark of honesty. Never delete it.
3. Trust the order of magnitude, not the last digitSeparate measured numbers from estimated ones when you write. Read with the same eye.
4. Doubting is not the same as denyingDoubt is the doorway to inquiry. Denying without inquiry is as lazy as believing.
5. Investigating the Sources of Famous SayingsFamous quotes, laws, and anecdotes often have weak sources. Learn the steps for checking them with three examples.
6. How to Read Ranges — The Integrity of Numbers"Approximately," "there is a range," and "varies by source" are not weaknesses. Be more suspicious of numbers where the range has been removed.
7. How to Read "Absence" — Three SilencesUnwritten, lost, or never there to begin with. Treat the three types of "absence" separately.
8. How to Use This School — Search, Compare, Reserve JudgmentLook up, read across two sections, mark your reservations, and write in your own words. The learning circuit follows this four-step rhythm.

Case studies — applied in the materials (10)

• The Mongol invasions　Japan　1274　Hakata Bay, Chikuzen
  An example with "estimate," "tradition" and "opinions differ" layered three deep in a single sentence. Check it in the original.
• Hellenism　Overview: 2,700 years of the world　155 BC　Menander's India
  How "it is said that" is used. A real instance of writing that does not assert.
• The coin comes again　Japan　1157　The Greater Imperial Palace, Kyoto
  A tradition about a person's abilities. Material for asking who wrote it down, when and why.
• Gresham and the recoinage　Britain　1560–1858　London, and a study of a later age
  Section 5. The most famous real-life example of a name and its contents dating to different eras.
• The price of the realm　Japan　1615–1616　Osaka and Kunozan
  Section 6. A real-life example of a writing style that presents a range of records as a range.
• The Wadō kaichin　Japan　from 708　On the coin's inscription
  Section 7. Silence due to the self-evident. The interpretation that official histories failed to record.
• A biography in a single coin　Overview: 2,700 years of the world　now　Why We Cherish a Single Coin
  Section 8. What it means to hold history in one's own hands.
• Letters from the Mud　Russia　11th–15th centuries　Novgorod
  This is not a royal decree or a mint ledger, but a demand for payment from one anonymous person to another. Please see what monetary history looks like when viewed from below, through the text on this 900-year-old piece of bark.
• A Rare Coin　India　1509–1529　A Blank in Numismatic History
  This is a passage that presents the fact that a weight of 3.4 grams appeared twice, two thousand years apart, without any material to explain why. Please observe the technique of closing the chapter without offering an unsubstantiated explanation.
• From county to kingdom (2)　Portugal　the 12th century　A minting workshop in Coimbra
  How precisely can one date a coin for which no contemporary issuance records survive? One can see a writing style that simply presents, side-by-side, the account dating it to 1128 and the view that it is from after 1179.

Assessment

14 exercises in this course (6 check, 0 compare, 8 written). Progress is recorded by self-assessment.

References

• An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations — Book I, Chapter IV: Of the Origin and Use of Money — Adam Smith (1904 edition by Edwin Cannan, Econlib).　The original source (1776) for the explanation that "money arose from the inconveniences of barter." The origin of the claim, mentioned in this course, that "it has been cited repeatedly for two hundred years." The full text is available.
• Barter and Economic Disintegration — Caroline Humphrey — Man (N.S.) Vol. 20, No. 1 (1985), pp. 48–72　A representative study arguing that "no example of a pure barter economy has ever been described, let alone one from which money has emerged." Provides academic support for this course's assertion that citation is different from verification.
• Gresham's Law — George Selgin — EH.Net Encyclopedia of Economic and Business History　An investigation into the origin of "bad money drives out good." It clarifies that this was not Gresham's own phrase but was coined by H. D. Macleod in 1858, and outlines the conditions under which the law holds.

Only works and primary sources whose existence has been verified are listed.