Description
Book SynopsisThis volume brings together a collection of recent essays on the philosophy and theory of history.
This is a field of lively interdisciplinary discussion and research, to which historians, philosophers and theorists of culture and literature have contributed. The author is a philosopher by training, and his inspiration comes primarily from the continental-phenomenological tradition. Thus the influence of Husserl, Heidegger, Merleau-Ponty and Ricoeur can be discerned here. This background opens up a unique perspective on the issues under discussion. Phenomenology differs from other philosophical approaches, like metaphysics and epistemology. Phenomenology asks, of anything that exists or may exist: how is it given, how does it enter our experience, what is our experience of it like? Very broadly we can say: phenomenology is about experience. At first glance, this approach may seem ill-suited to history. In our language, history usually means either 1) what happened, i.e. past e
Table of Contents
Introduction 1
PART 1
Historicity, narrative, and time 9
1 On historicity 11
2 Reflections on temporal perspective: the use and abuse of hindsight 24
3 The stories of our lives: aging and narrative 34
4 On being historical 46
PART 2
Teleology and history 59
5 Teleology and the experience of history 61
6 Husserl and Foucault on the historical a priori: teleological and anti-teleological views of history 75
7 Historical teleology: the grand illusion? 86
8 On the metaphilosophy of history 97
PART 3
Embodiment and experience 113
9 Intersubjectivity and embodiment 115
10 History as orientation: Rüsen on historical culture and narration 128
11 Erlebnis and history 144
12 Experience and history 153
