The essay examines the recent discussion about a “crisis of testimony” in historiography. Central to this discussion is the question of how it is possible for human testimony to convey information about the limit experiences of 20th century history. Given that the credibility of testimony is assessed by appealing to our previous understanding of what is credible, testimony to limit experiences risks being dismissed as unbelievable or implausible. This issue has recently been addressed in the work of Paul Ricoeur, Hayden White and Gert-Jan van der Heiden among others. In the first part of this essay, I show that the current idea of a crisis of testimony is a consequence of focusing too exclusively on the content of extraordinary testimony. I argue that such a focus has affinities with David Hume’s reductionist understanding of testimonial knowledge; even though the authors discussed cannot properly be labelled reductionists themselves. In the second part of the essay, I open up the issue of extraordinary testimony from a perspective that places the relationship between the speaker and the addressee at the heart of testimonial knowledge. My aim is to show that if we attend to the way in which testimonial knowledge involves dependence on the authority of another person, then the current idea of a crisis of testimony will dissolve itself. In conclusion, I argue that there is an important ethical dimension to the question of understanding extraordinary testimony.

中文翻译：

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史学中的证词危机

本文考察了有关史学中“证词危机”的最新讨论。讨论的核心是人类证词如何传达有关20世纪历史极限经验的信息的问题。鉴于对证言的可信度是通过诉诸我们先前对可信性的理解来评估的，因此限制证词的经验风险被认为是不可置信或难以置信的。Paul Ricoeur，Hayden White和Gert-Jan van der Heiden等人的工作最近都解决了这个问题。在本文的第一部分，我表明当前证词危机的概念是过于专注于非凡证词内容的结果。我认为，这种关注与戴维·休ume（David Hume）的还原主义对证明知识的理解有相似之处。即使所讨论的作者自己不能适当地称为简化主义者。在本文的第二部分中，我从演讲者和收件人之间的关系置于见证知识核心的角度出发，探讨了非常规见证的问题。我的目的是表明，如果我们关注证明知识涉及依赖他人权威的方式，那么当前的证词危机概念将自行解决。最后，我认为理解特殊证词的问题在道德上具有重要意义。我从将演讲者和收件人之间的关系置于证明知识的核心的角度来探讨非凡的证明问题。我的目的是表明，如果我们关注证明知识涉及依赖他人权威的方式，那么当前的证词危机概念将自行解决。最后，我认为理解特殊证词的问题在道德上具有重要意义。我从将演讲者和收件人之间的关系置于证明知识的核心的角度来探讨非凡的证明问题。我的目的是表明，如果我们关注证明知识涉及依赖他人权威的方式，那么当前的证词危机概念将自行解决。最后，我认为理解特殊证词的问题在道德上具有重要意义。