How to Determine the Objective Nature of Events – Herodotus’ Investigative Process of Causes and Effects

Herodotus, in his Histories, tells us, on many occasions, that he is here to tell a story of events; He is a storyteller. But what kind of storyteller is he?

Homer told us stories about the Trojan War; Hesiod told us stories about the Genesis of the Gods and the World, and the Human Race; Aeschylus and the other Tragedians told us a story with each of their plays and on several occasions, each one told the same story with his own interpretation.

What is the process that Herodotus uses to tell us his story about the behavior of the Nile? How is that different from Homer’s and the Tragedians? He starts his story saying,

“About why the Nile behaves precisely as it does I could get no information from the priests or anyone else…..Nobody in Egypt could give me any explanation of this, in spite of my constant attempts to find out what was the peculiar property which made the Nile behave the opposite way to other rivers, and why – another point on which I hoped for information – it was the only river to cause no breezes.”

First, Herodotus identifies a phenomenon, that is, ‘Nile is behaving unlike any other river that he is aware of.’ Then he proceeds to state that it has to be some ‘peculiar property’ or a cause in other words that makes the Nile different. He also observes and identifies another property of the Nile; “Nile is the only river to cause no breezes.” The next step is to survey other opinions or explanations on the phenomenon. Using logic, facts, and observation to identify and separate the causes and the effects of the explanations he refutes all of them. Below he gives us the reasons why he refutes the first explanation of the phenomenon.

“Certain Greeks, hoping to advertise how clever they are, have tried to account for the flooding of the Nile in three different ways. Two of the explanations are not worth dwelling upon, beyond a bare mention of what they are: one is that the summer north winds cause the water to rise by checking the flow of the currents towards the sea. In fact, however, these winds on many occasions have failed to blow, yet the Nile has risen as usual; moreover, if these winds were responsible for the rise, the other rivers which happen to run against them would certainly be affected in the same way as the Nile …there are many rivers in Syria and Libya, but none of them are affected in the same way as the Nile.”

He refutes the second explanation as irrational,

“The second explanation is less rational, being somewhat, if I may put it, of a legendary character: it is that Nile exhibits its remarkable characteristics because it flows from the Ocean, the stream of which encircles the world……as for the writer who mentions the Ocean in this connection, his account is a mere a fairy-tale depending upon an unknown quantity and cannot be disproved by argument. I know myself of no river called Ocean, and can only suppose that Homer or some earlier poet invented the name and introduced it into poetry.”

Herodotus’ statement “…a fairy-tale depending upon an unknown quantity and cannot be disproved by argument….” is a very remarkable one. It applies equally today as it did when Herodotus made the connection and wrote that statement down.  In other words that ‘superstition can’t be disproved by argument and anything that can’t be proved or disproved by rationality and observation and analysis of the facts it belongs to the realm of metaphysics.’

Using cause and effect, Herodotus finds the third explanation as one that makes sense! But he proceeds to refute this claim too based on the facts from observation and reason.

“The third theory is much more plausible, but at the same time furthest from the truth; according to this, the water of the Nile comes from melting snow, but as it flows from Libya through Ethiopia into Egypt, that is, from a very hot into cooler climate, how could it possibly originate in snow?..anyone who can use his wits about such matters will find plenty of arguments to prove how unlikely it is that snow is the cause the cause…the strongest proof is provided by the winds, which blow hot from those regions; secondly rain and frost are unknown there…thirdly, the natives are black because of the hot climate. Again, hawks and swallows remain throughout the year, and cranes migrate thither in winter to escape the cold weather from Scythia. But if there were snow, however little….none of these things possibly be; for they are contrary to reason.”

So far Herodotus has described and disproved the existing theories of the phenomenon. He then proceeds and expresses his own hypothesis. He uses the same method to lay out his view and then he provides reasoning and facts to support his theory. Although his explanation of the phenomenon is incorrect, it is based on cause and effect and reasoning and observation to support it. He has no way of knowing that the Nile floods because of the heavy summer rains in the East plains of Africa where the river originates. As regards to the other peculiar property of the Nile he makes the following statement:

“I mentioned the fact that no breeze blows from the Nile; I would suggest, in….of this, that the usual thing is for winds to originate in a cold region, not in a hot one.”

The above statement is one of the major observations, the flow of heat, which led physicists to develop the second and third Laws of Thermodynamics. We see the same reasoned thinking as he tries to explain the story that the Nile’s source is a fathomless spring, and again as he tries to provide an estimate of the length of the Nile.

So what we observe hear is evidence of the leap in the Greek thinking that occurred in the 5^th century B.C. We have identification of phenomena; separation of causes and effects; observation and facts; Existing hypotheses/explanations are analyzed, observations are made, and they are rejected (or accepted) based on reason and evidence. Then a new hypothesis is proposed, assumptions are made, and the hypothesis is accepted (or rejected) as an explanation of a phenomenon/event based on observation, facts, and critical reasoning.

This is the research process and the birth of History as an investigative process of cause and effect to determine the objectivity of events. And History’s father is Herodotus!