Why did Peter Winch argue that historians should use terms historical actors would recognize?

Peter Winch, influenced by the later work of Ludwig Wittgenstein, argued that historical descriptions must be framed using terms that the historical actors themselves would have recognized.1

Winch’s position emerged as a critique of the positivist or "covering law" model of history, which sought to explain human actions through universal causal laws similar to those used in the natural sciences. Winch contended that such scientific models fail to account for the nature of human intention and purpose. Instead, he emphasized that social reality is defined by specific ideas, conventions, and meanings that participants in a society use to make sense of their own activities.1

By using the terminology of the actors, the historian acknowledges that these concepts are constitutive of the social reality being studied. Consequently, Winch argued that understanding historical behavior requires grasping the internal logic of the social world in which the agents participated, rather than imposing external, scientific categories that may obscure the meaning of their actions.1