The Enigma of Causality: What Makes Historians to Seek for the Causes of the Main Events and What Prevents Them from Determining the Causes Definitely?

Abstract. The paper investigates one of the thorniest epistemological problems, that of causality. Relying on the historiography of such important topics, as the American Civil War and the First World War, and on some philosophical and methodological works, it reveals a number of difficulties that historians encounter in their efforts to establish the causes of the crucial events. Then the analysis goes on to reveal the discursive nature of the notion of “event” and to suggest a hypothesis about the impact of the common logic and the everyday experience on the concept of historical causality. Finally, the paper raises a question of the limits of the causal analysis in history and discusses non-causal forms of historical explanation.

Keywords: historical causation, causal analysis, common logic, historiographic discourse, historical explanation, the American Civil War, the First World War.