Philosophy Dictionary of ArgumentsHome
| |||
|
| |||
| History: History is the study of the past, especially the people, events, and trends that have shaped our world. This is about the part of the past that was determined and experienced by consciousness. See also Historiography, Culture._____________Annotation: The above characterizations of concepts are neither definitions nor exhausting presentations of problems related to them. Instead, they are intended to give a short introduction to the contributions below. – Lexicon of Arguments. | |||
| Author | Concept | Summary/Quotes | Sources |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Historism on History - Dictionary of Arguments
Gadamer I 205 History/Historism/Gadamer: The common basic assumption of all representatives of this historical view of the world, Ranke's as well as Droysen's as well as Dilthey's, is that the idea, the essence, the freedom does not find a complete and adequate expression in the historical reality. Now this is not to be understood in the sense of a mere lack or a lagging behind. Rather, they discover in it the constitutive principle of history itself, that the idea in history always has only an imperfect representation. Just because this is so, instead of philosophy, historical research is needed to teach people about themselves and their position in the world. The idea of a history, which would be a pure representation of the idea, meant in one sense the renunciation of it as a separate path of truth. Gadamer: Meanwhile, even the denial of such an a priori, unhistorical standard, which stands at the beginning of 19th century historical research, is not as free of metaphysical presuppositions as it believes itself to be and as it claims to be when it sees itself as scientific research. This can be seen in the analysis of the leading concepts of this historical world view. It is true that these concepts are, according to their own intention, precisely aimed at correcting the prior decision of an aprioristic construction of history. But by polemically opposing the idealistic concept of the mind, they remain related to it. >History/Dilthey. Historism/Gadamer: But historical reality is (...) not a mere cloudy medium, contrary to the mind, rigid necessity, at which the mind breaks itself and in whose fetters it suffocates. Such a Gnostic-New Platonic assessment of the event as the process of its emergence into the external world of appearance does not do justice to the metaphysical value of being of history and thus to the level of knowledge of historical science. It is precisely the development of the human being in time that has its own Gadamer I 206 productivity. It is the fullness and diversity of the human being that brings itself to increasing reality in the infinite change of human destinies. This is how the basic assumption of the historical school could be formulated. Its connection with the classicism of the Goethe era cannot be overlooked. What is leading here is basically a humanistic ideal. Wilhelm von Humboldt had seen the specific perfection of Greekism in the wealth of great individual forms it displays. Now the great historians are certainly not restricted to such a classicist ideal. They rather followed >Herder. Gadamer: But what does the historical view of the world, which ties in with Herder and no longer knows the merits of a classical age, do other than to see the whole of world history under the same standard that Wilhelm von Humboldt used to justify the merits of classical antiquity? Wealth of individual appearances is not only the distinction of Greek life, it is the distinction of historical life in general, and that is what makes the value and sense of history._____________Explanation of symbols: Roman numerals indicate the source, arabic numerals indicate the page number. The corresponding books are indicated on the right hand side. ((s)…): Comment by the sender of the contribution. Translations: Dictionary of Arguments The note [Concept/Author], [Author1]Vs[Author2] or [Author]Vs[term] resp. "problem:"/"solution:", "old:"/"new:" and "thesis:" is an addition from the Dictionary of Arguments. If a German edition is specified, the page numbers refer to this edition. |
Historism Gadamer I Hans-Georg Gadamer Wahrheit und Methode. Grundzüge einer philosophischen Hermeneutik 7. durchgesehene Auflage Tübingen 1960/2010 Gadamer II H. G. Gadamer The Relevance of the Beautiful, London 1986 German Edition: Die Aktualität des Schönen: Kunst als Spiel, Symbol und Fest Stuttgart 1977 |
||
Ed. Martin Schulz, access date 2024-04-19