Meaning, Truth, and Reference in Historical Representation

Meaning, Truth, and Reference in Historical Representation PDF Author: Frank Ankersmit
Publisher: Cornell University Press
ISBN: 0801463858
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 279

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Book Description
In this book, the noted intellectual historian Frank Ankersmit provides a systematic account of the problems of reference, truth, and meaning in historical writing. He works from the conviction that the historicist account of historical writing, associated primarily with Leopold von Ranke and Wilhelm von Humboldt, is essentially correct but that its original idealist and romanticist idiom needs to be translated into more modern terms. Rehabilitating historicism for the contemporary philosophy of history, he argues, "reveals the basic truths about the nature of the past itself, how we relate to it, and how we make sense of the past in historical writing." At the heart of Ankersmit's project is a sharp distinction between interpretation and representation. The historical text, he holds, is first and foremost a representation of some part of the past, not an interpretation. The book's central chapters address the concept of historical representation from the perspectives of reference, truth, and meaning. Ankersmit then goes on to discuss the possible role of experience in the history writing, which leads directly to a consideration of subjectivity and ethics in the historian's practice. Ankersmit concludes with a chapter on political history, which he maintains is the "basis and condition of all other variants of historical writing." Ankersmit's rehabilitation of historicism is a powerfully original and provocative contribution to the debate about the nature of historical writing.

Meaning, Truth, and Reference in Historical Representation

Meaning, Truth, and Reference in Historical Representation PDF Author: Frank Ankersmit
Publisher: Cornell University Press
ISBN: 0801463858
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 279

Get Book Here

Book Description
In this book, the noted intellectual historian Frank Ankersmit provides a systematic account of the problems of reference, truth, and meaning in historical writing. He works from the conviction that the historicist account of historical writing, associated primarily with Leopold von Ranke and Wilhelm von Humboldt, is essentially correct but that its original idealist and romanticist idiom needs to be translated into more modern terms. Rehabilitating historicism for the contemporary philosophy of history, he argues, "reveals the basic truths about the nature of the past itself, how we relate to it, and how we make sense of the past in historical writing." At the heart of Ankersmit's project is a sharp distinction between interpretation and representation. The historical text, he holds, is first and foremost a representation of some part of the past, not an interpretation. The book's central chapters address the concept of historical representation from the perspectives of reference, truth, and meaning. Ankersmit then goes on to discuss the possible role of experience in the history writing, which leads directly to a consideration of subjectivity and ethics in the historian's practice. Ankersmit concludes with a chapter on political history, which he maintains is the "basis and condition of all other variants of historical writing." Ankersmit's rehabilitation of historicism is a powerfully original and provocative contribution to the debate about the nature of historical writing.

Meaning, Truth, and Reference in Historical Representation

Meaning, Truth, and Reference in Historical Representation PDF Author: Frank R. Ankersmit
Publisher: Cornell University Press
ISBN: 0801464323
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 279

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Book Description
In this book, the noted intellectual historian Frank Ankersmit provides a systematic account of the problems of reference, truth, and meaning in historical writing. He works from the conviction that the historicist account of historical writing, associated primarily with Leopold von Ranke and Wilhelm von Humboldt, is essentially correct but that its original idealist and romanticist idiom needs to be translated into more modern terms. Rehabilitating historicism for the contemporary philosophy of history, he argues, "reveals the basic truths about the nature of the past itself, how we relate to it, and how we make sense of the past in historical writing." At the heart of Ankersmit's project is a sharp distinction between interpretation and representation. The historical text, he holds, is first and foremost a representation of some part of the past, not an interpretation. The book's central chapters address the concept of historical representation from the perspectives of reference, truth, and meaning. Ankersmit then goes on to discuss the possible role of experience in the history writing, which leads directly to a consideration of subjectivity and ethics in the historian's practice. Ankersmit concludes with a chapter on political history, which he maintains is the "basis and condition of all other variants of historical writing." Ankersmit’s rehabilitation of historicism is a powerfully original and provocative contribution to the debate about the nature of historical writing.

Historical Representation

Historical Representation PDF Author: F. R. Ankersmit
Publisher: Stanford University Press
ISBN: 9780804739801
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 340

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Book Description
Focusing on the notion of representation and on the necessity of distinguishing between representation and description, this book argues that the traditional semantic apparatus of meaning, truth, and reference that we use for description must be redefined if we are to understand properly the nature of historical writing.

Where Is History Today?

Where Is History Today? PDF Author: Laura Mulvey
Publisher: Palacký University Olomouc
ISBN: 8024447606
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 212

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Book Description
History no longer belongs only to historians, but is woven into the fabric and discourse of daily life. This fresh and wide-ranging survey explores how new media and new historiographic approaches are dramatically expanding what we understand by “history” today. Controversy about the aims and limits of historical analysis has raged ever since the rise of postmodern history in the 1970s. But these debates have rarely affected the understanding of history in Central and Eastern Europe. The volume confirms the crucial importance of audiovisual and mass media, from film to television and radio to comics, but does not exclude literary scholars and art historians who are also rethinking their methods, taking note of their new consumers. If history formerly appeared to be a one-way transmission of expertise, it is increasingly a dynamic engagement between researchers and audiences.

Historical Narratives

Historical Narratives PDF Author: Mariana Imaz-Sheinbaum
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 1000987965
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 104

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Book Description
This book explains some of the psychological processes that go into narrative construction and why it is that we have so much variability of historical accounts about a single historical event. A central focus of this book is how historians go from having unconnected units of data to having a coherent, structured, and organized flow of experiences. The author argues that the way these connections are established responds to certain Gestalt psychological principles that allow us to understand not only how histories are constructed but also how this construction can be rather different depending on how these principles are applied. To illustrate how these principles are present in histories, the author analyzes classic historical writers such as Burckhardt, Huizinga, Vico, and Marx. As well as an explanation of why historical multiplicity happens, the book also offers a way to evaluate different historical narratives about the same historical event. To illustrate how the evaluative framework is at play, the author analyzes two views about the so-called discovery of America. The first one explains what happens in 1492 by using the term "discovery." The second one uses the notion of "invention" to talk about the same set of circumstances. The book provides an important epistemic tool to evaluate these different accounts—one that can be applied not only to this case but also others. This book appeals to scholars, graduate students, and upper-level undergraduate students of history and philosophy. In addition, the book may also attract intellectuals, generally considered, who are interested in how philosophy can inform and question historical practice.

Key Issues in Historical Theory

Key Issues in Historical Theory PDF Author: Herman Paul
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317519450
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 186

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Book Description
Key Issues in Historical Theory is a fresh, clear and well-grounded introduction to this vibrant field of inquiry, incorporating many examples from novels, paintings, music, and political debates. The book expertly engages the reader in discussions of what history is, how people relate to the past and how they are formed by the past. Over 11 thematically-based chapters, Herman Paul discusses subjects such as: history, memory and trauma historical experience and narrative moral and political dimensions of history historical reasoning and explanation truth, plausibility and objectivity. Key Issues in Historical Theory convincingly shows that historical theory is not limited to reflection on professional historical studies, but offers valuable tools for understanding autobiographical writing, cultural heritage and political controversies about the past. With textboxes providing additional focus on a range of key topics, this is an attractive, accessible and up-to-date guide to the field of historical theory.

Allegorizing History

Allegorizing History PDF Author: Timothy J Furry
Publisher: James Clarke & Company
ISBN: 0227902165
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 169

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Book Description
What is history and how does it impact upon biblical interpretation and theology? 'Allegorizing History' seeks to answer this question by arguing that conceptions of the past and the purposes of history impact upon biblical interpretation and vice versa.Invoking Constantin Fasolt's notion of history as 'a knowledge of the past, as well as the technique by which such knowledge is produced', and re-fashioning Erich Auerbach's historical enterprise in Figura (1938), Furry contends that the understanding and practice of historical writing is inevitably affected by philosophy and theology, thereby rendering all history as figural or allegorical. Famous for his Ecclesiastical History of the Anglo-Saxon People and biblical commentaries, the Venerable Bede is studied in dialogue with Augustine, contemporary theology, and historical theory to make this interdisciplinary argument.

Queen Boudica and Historical Culture in Britain

Queen Boudica and Historical Culture in Britain PDF Author: Martha Vandrei
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0192548697
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 383

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Book Description
Taking a long chronological view and a wide-ranging, interdisciplinary approach, this is an innovative and distinctive book. It is the definitive work on the posthumous reputation of the ever-popular warrior queen of the Iceni, Queen Boadicea/Boudica, exploring her presence in British historical discourse, from the early-modern rediscovery of the works of Tacitus to the first historical films of the early twentieth century. In doing so, the book seeks to demonstrate the continuity and persistence of historical ideas across time and throughout a variety of media. This focus on continuity leads into an examination of the nature of history as a cultural phenomenon and the implications this has for our own conceptions of history and its role in culture more generally. While providing contemporary contextual readings of Boudica's representations, Martha Vandrei also explores the unique nature of historical ideas as durable cultural phenomena, articulated by very different individuals over time, all of whom were nevertheless engaged in the creative process of making history. Thus this study presents a challenge to the axioms of cultural history, new historicism, and other mainstays of twentieth- and twenty-first- century historical scholarship. It shows how, long before professional historians sought to monopolise historical practice, audiences encountered visions of past ages created by antiquaries, playwrights, poets, novelists, and artists, all of which engaged with, articulated, and even defined the meaning of 'historical truth'. This book argues that these individual depictions, variable audience reactions, and the abiding notion of history as truth constitute the substance of historical culture.

The SAGE Handbook of Historical Theory

The SAGE Handbook of Historical Theory PDF Author: Nancy Partner
Publisher: SAGE
ISBN: 1848600429
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 545

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Book Description
The SAGE Handbook of Historical Theory introduces the foundations of modern historical theory and the applications of theory to a full range of sub-fields of historical research, bringing the reader as up to date as possible with continuing debates and current developments. The book is divided into three key parts, covering: - Part I. Foundations: The Theoretical Grounds for Knowledge of the Past - Part II. Applications: Theory-Intensive Areas in History - Part III. Coda. Post-Postmodernism: Directions and Interrogations. This important handbook brings together, in one volume, discussions of modernity, empiricism, deconstruction, narrative and postmodernity in the continuing evolution of the historical discipline into our post-postmodern era. Chapters are written by leading academics from around the world and cover a wide array of specialized areas of the discipline, including social history, intellectual history, gender, memory, psychoanalysis and cultural history. The influence of major thinkers such as Jacques Derrida, Michel Foucault and Hayden White is fully examined. This handbook is an essential resource for practising historians, and students of history, and will appeal to scholars in related disciplines in the social sciences and humanities who seek a closer understanding of the theoretical foundations of history.

Other Logics

Other Logics PDF Author: Admir Skodo
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004270183
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 249

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Book Description
Other Logics: Alternatives to Formal Logic in the History of Thought and Contemporary Philosophy challenges the widespread idea of formal logic as inherently monolithic, universal, and ahistorical. Written by both leading and up-and-coming scholars, and edited by Admir Skodo, Other Logics offers a wide variety of historical and philosophical alternatives to this idea, all arguing that logic is a historical, concrete, and multi-dimensional phenomenon. To name a few examples, Frank Ankersmit lays down a representationalist logic, Alessandra Tanesini forcefully argues for the possibility of logical aliens, Christopher Watkin analyzes how leading contemporary French philosophers view the idea of logic, and Aaron Wendland unearths Heidegger's critique of formal logic. In Other Logics readers will find provocative interventions in a highly contested field in contemporary philosophy. Contributors include: Frank Ankersmit, Christopher Watkin, Giuseppina D'Oro, Alessandra Tanesini, Admir Skodo, Aaron Wendland, Ervik Cejvan, Anders Kraal, Christopher Fear, Karim Dharamsi, Johan Modée, and Thord Svensson.