Ontological aspects of interpretation of personal documents
What historical source is and how it should be perceived by a historian, when the object of history of culture is understood as Husserlian Lebenswelt? Inspired by R. Ingardenʼs analyses of literature we present seven layers of written historical source. Although not all of them are utilized in the actual historical investigation, they enable to grasp important elements of the Lebenswelt. An effort to elaborate a complete theory of historical source in history of culture as well as description of the layers and their interrelations will not only enrich historianʼs toolset but will also open a field for investigations of interdisciplinary nature of such research and possible collaboration between representatives of other disciplines. Analysis of the Lebenswelt present in the historical source should be concerned with its own constraints and possible interpretations whereas the latter should not be derived from our contemporary views and experiences which are “obvious” to us but instead they should be done in the context of hierarchy of values as it is presented in the analyzed text.