The Distinction Between Truth&Fault In Archives

Archives are a kind of information resource with the strongest credibility, responsible for maintaining the historical truth. Archivists have bounden duty on the maintenance of archives’ truth. However, with the implementation of the archival open policy and the process of archival social service, the lack of the authenticity of identification in practical archives management and the blank of authenticity theory in archives appraisal theory have more and more people’s attention. The specificity and complexity of archival authenticity requires putting the "true" and "false" which are the two controversial concepts in philosophy into this specific context----archives. With the help of the object and standard of archival science, the essence of archival authenticity is reduced. At the same time, in the research of archival authenticity the essential attribute of archives can’t be ignored. This paper firstly analyses the "true" and "false" in philosophy and the archives science, a dialectical understanding about the "true" and "false". Secondly, it expounds and analyses the phenomena of the "true" archives, the "false" archives and the archives mixed with the "true" and "false". This paper contains the main points are as follows:the contents of the archives can’t be judged as the standard of the "true" and "false" archives; under the premise of the truth of carrier, credit mark and some features, as long as we can confirm archives are formed (i.e. source) in their activities, we can confirm the archives are true or false, and we needn’t consider the contents of the archives authenticity; the "pseudo" archives also are not with the contents of the archives, but the artificial misplaced and misjudgment. Based on the analysis of the "true" and false" concept and the archives authenticity phenomenon, the author puts forward the identification method of distinguishing between truth and fault in archives, and reaches relevant conclusions. In a word, the analysis of the archives’ truth and fault has very important theory significance and practical significance in the field of improving archival theory system, promoting archives utilization and guiding archival appraisal practice.