Persson, Mats (Author)
Lychnos
Pages: 59-105
Edition Details: Translated title: [Enlightenment and historicism: On the current state of research]
Language: Swedish
There has been increasing interest in the history of historiography during the last decades. One major topic within this field has been the questions of when and how the modernisation of European historiography came about. The classical view that modern historical thinking and "scientific history" began around 1800, with so-called German historicism, has been challenged. Most researchers now emphasise the importance of late Enlightenment historiography. There is general agreement that historical thinking was radically transformed during the latter half of the eighteenth century. In this context, R. Koselleck's studies of radical changes both in the concept of history and in the language of historians during this period have been very influential. The result of this transformation was a genetic historical thinking that emphasised immanent causality and progress. The increasing interest in history in the eighteenth century has been analysed both as the result of new experiences of social change, and as an expression of the middle-class critique of feudal society. This new form of history was a European phenomenon. In Germany, in addition to this, there were also tendencies towards professionalisation. At some universities, especially at Gttingen, history was transformed from an auxiliary science to an autonomous discipline. Methods of source criticism were applied systematically, and principles of rational reconstruction and narrative were formulated. Here the classical rhetorical principles that had dominated older historiography were abandoned. Recent research concerning this modernisation has led to a re-evaluation of the relationship between late Enlightenment historiography and the historicism of Ranke and his followers. In this question, there are two major schools of interpretation. One school, which includes G. Iggers, regards the late Enlightenment as superior and sees historicism as retrograde. The other school, most clearly represented by J. Rsen and his followers, analyses the relation between the two as a developmental process with two phases in which a certain degree of progress takes place. The Rsen School, due to its large number of studies and its elaborate research programme, has come to hold a central position in the debate on Enlightenment and historicism. Their interpretation, however, has also been sharply criticised. There are also other noticeable tendencies and themes in the research debate concerning this period in the history of historiography. The concept and problematic of modernisation has been criticised, and there has been a tendency to apply interdisciplinary perspectives, especially to eighteenth century historiography. Another topic concerns the concept of historicism (Historismus). In a number of clarifying studies, O. G. Oexle has shown that the term today has two main usages that are very different. In philosophical contexts, historicism signifies problems related to the question of relativism, whereas in the history of historiography, it mainly refers to a nineteenth-century tradition. One conclusion of this article is that the conflicts between different interpretations of Enlightenment and historicism are dependent on current discussions about what history can and should be. The most obvious example is the concept of science. The historian's definition of the concept has decisive consequences for the interpretations of past historiography.
...MoreDescription On the “questions of when and how the modernisation of European historiography came about.” (from the abstract)
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