Memoirs as a sort of biographical historical sources or as historical sources of personal origin: problems of terminology

The study examines the history of solving the problem of classification historical sources and the history of the emergence of three classification terms: category (type), sort (species) and “source of personal origin” when selecting biographical sources from the general body of historical sources. The author’s attention is focused on the current issue of terminological unity, or rather, logical purity (rigor) in the classification of biographical sources in scientific research. The study discusses scientific situation in which it is possible to apply the classification taxon “sources of personal origin” or the species classification of historical sources on their pragmatic function. The study concludes that it is advantageous to classify of historical sources by kind based on their pragmatic function.