Difference between revisions of "Historicism" - New World Encyclopedia

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:''This term sometimes refers to [[Historical School]].''
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'''Historicism''' is a term which applies to a number of theories of culture or historical development which place the greatest weight on two factors:
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Historicism is a position that holds that all knowledge and cognition are historically conditioned. It is also widely used in diverse disciplines to designate an approach from a historical perspective. The term is used both in the pejorative and neutral sense. Historicism in the most narrow sense signifies a philosophical position that appeared in Europe during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, primarily in [[Germany]], held by a number of thinkers in diverse disciplines, such as [[philosophy]], [[history]], [[law]], and [[economics]]. Historicism challenged a progressive view of history that interpreted history as a linear, uniform process that operated according to universal laws, a view widely held by thinkers since the [[Enlightenment]]. Historicism stressed the unique diversity of historical contexts and stressed the importance of developing specific methods and theories appropriate to each unique historical context.
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# that there is an organic succession of developments (also known as historism or the [[German language|German]] historismus),  
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{{toc}}
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# that local conditions and peculiarities influence the results in a decisive way 
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Historicism also often challenged the concept of [[truth]] and the notion of [[rationality]] of [[modernity]]. Modern thinkers held that reason is a universal faculty of the mind that is free of interpretation, that can grasp universal and unchanging truth. Historicism questioned this notion of rationality and truth, and argued for the historical context of knowledge and reason.  Although individual theories vary as to how and to what extent knowledge is historically conditioned, historicism is an explicit formulation of the historicity of knowledge. The major question to historicism is its [[relativism|relativist]] implications. If all knowledge is conditioned by history, there is no objectivity or universality in knowledge. The earlier formulation of historicism was made by [[Giambattista Vico|Vico]] (1668-1744) and [[Johann Gottfried von Herder|Herder]] (1744–1803), and the historicity of knowledge is one of the central issues continually debated today.
  
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It can be contrasted with [[reductionism|reductionist]] theories which suppose that all developments are individual and ''[[ad hoc]]''.
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==Historical background==
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[[Giambattista Vico|Vico]] (1668–1744) and [[Johann Gottfried von Herder|Herder]] (1744–1803) developed the archetypal models of historicism. Vico criticized the concept that truth transcends history and argued that truth is conditioned by human history. Herder rejected central ideas of the [[Enlightenment]], such as a historical view of humanity, concept of universal [[rationality]], and belief in the [[progress]] of human history according to the development of reason. These ideas of the Enlightenment were built upon the presuppositions that there was only one kind of rationality applicable to all people and cultures and that human history is a linear process of progress whose pattern of development was the same for all. Herder argued that each historical period and culture contains a unique value system, and he conceived history as the aggregate of diverse, unique histories. Herder stressed the importance of understanding the unique context of each historical period in order to make an authentic interpretation of the past.
  
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The [[#Biblical historicism|theological use]] of the word denotes Bible prophecy which is interpreted as being related to church history, as opposed to any type of interpretation.
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In nineteenth century Europe, particularly in Germany, historicism flourished in various disciplinary areas. In the field of law, Friedrich Carl von Savigny (1779–1861) developed the [[German Historical School of Law]] in opposition to theorists of [[Natural law]] of the Enlightenment.  He argued that laws, like language, reflect the unique history and customs of each region or race.  
  
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The term has developed different and divergent, though loosely related, meanings. Elements of historicism appear in the writings of [[Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel|G.W.F. Hegel]], an influential [[philosophy|philosopher]] in [[Nineteenth Century|19th-century]] [[Europe]], as well as in those of a philosopher he is said to have influenced heavily, [[Karl Marx]]. The term is also associated with the empirical social sciences and the work of [[Franz Boas]].
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In economics, [[Friedrich List]] (1789-1846) criticized the idea of the universal economic laws of [[classical economics]] and argued that economic principles and policies had to be made according to unique historical contexts. List’s ideas influenced [[Gustav von Schmoller]] (1838–1917), a German economic theorist who also held a historicist perspective.
  
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The Austrian/English philosopher [[Karl Popper]] attacked what he saw as "historicism" along with the [[determinism]] and [[holism]] which he argued was at its root.
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Major historical theorists include [[Leopold von Ranke]] (1795–1886), [[Johann Gustav Droysen]] (1808–1884), and [[Friedrich Meinecke]] (1862–1954). They opposed a progressive view of history, which interprets history as a process of uniform development based upon the progress of reason. They were also critical of the speculative interpretation of history as exemplified by [[Hegel]]. They argued that there were diverse and unique characteristics to each region and people, which were irreducible to abstract uniform patterns based upon abstract speculative ideas in philosophy. Ranke, for example, approached history based upon a critical examination of primary documents and sources as opposed to Hegel’s speculative approach.  
  
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[[Post-structuralism]] uses the term [[New Historicism]], which has some connections to both anthropology and Hegelianism.
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[[Wilhelm Dilthey]] (1833–1911) attempted to establish a conceptual formulation of historicism in philosophy. Dilthey challenged the concept of reason as free of interpretation, neutral, and an a-historical faculty. This concept of rationality can be traced back to the ideals of the Enlightenment. Dilthey’s direct target was [[Kant]], who held the same concept of rationality as those of the Enlightenment. In his unfinished work, “The Structure of the Historical World in the Human Sciences,” Dilthey tried to carry out the task of formulating a critique of historical reason, which he presented in contrast to Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason.  
  
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== Variants of historicism ==
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Dilthey argued that events in history are unique and cannot be repeated. To understand the event, one must leave one’s present context of understanding and view it from the historical context of that event. Hermeneutics is art of interpreting the historical contexts of events in human life.
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=== Hegelian historicism ===
 
  
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The historicist position proposed by Hegel suggests that any human [[society]] and all human activities such as [[science]], [[art]], or [[philosophy]], are defined by their history, so that their essence can be sought only through understanding that history. The history of any such human endeavor, moreover, not only builds upon but also reacts against what has gone before; this is the source of Hegel's famous [[dialectic]] teaching usually summed up by the slogan "[[thesis]], [[antithesis]], and [[synthesis]]."  (Hegel did not use these terms, although [[Johann Gottlieb Fichte|Fichte]] did.) Hegel's famous aphorism, "Philosophy is the history of philosophy," describes it bluntly.  
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For Dilthey, experience is essentially interpretive and rationality is also socially and historically contextualized and conditioned. Based upon this insight, Dilthey advanced the tradition of [[Hermeneutics|hermeneutics]] developed by [[Friedrich Schleiermacher]]. Hermeneuticity of rationality was carried on by [[Heidegger]], and [[Gadamer]]. Although [[Husserl]] criticized Dilthey for being a proponent of historicism, other philosophers in the hermeneutic traditions do not generally fall into the category of historicism.  
  
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Hegel's position is perhaps best illuminated when contrasted against the atomistic and reductionist view of human societies and social activities self-defining on an ''ad hoc'' basis through the sum of dozens of interactions. Yet another contrasting model is the persistent metaphor of a [[social contract]].  Hegel sees the relationship between individuals and societies as organic, not atomic: even their social discourse is mediated by [[philosophy of language|language]], and language is rooted in [[etymology]] and unique character. It thus preserves the culture of the past in thousands of half-forgotten frozen [[metaphor]]s.  To understand why a person is the way he is, you must put that person in a society: and to understand that society, you must understand its history, and the forces that shaped it. The ''[[Zeitgeist]]'', the "Spirit of the Age," is the concrete embodiment of the most important factors that are acting in human history at any given time. This contrasts with teleological theories of activity, which suppose that the end is the determining factor of activity, as well as those which believe in a [[tabula rasa]], or blank slate, view, where individuals are defined by their interactions.
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Among the [[Neo-Kantianism|Neo-Kantians]], Wilhelm Windelband (1848–1915) and Heinrich John Rickert (1863–1936) tried to formulate methodological differences between historical science and natural science. Windelband characterized historical sciences as a type of discipline which describes unique individual characteristics of events and natural sciences as that which explains phenomena by laws. Rickert distinguished science into natural science and cultural science, and subsumed historical science under cultural science.
  
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These ideas can be taken in several directions.  The [[Right Hegelians]], working from Hegel's opinions about the organicism and historically determined nature of human societies, took Hegel's historicism as a justification of the unique destiny of national groups and the importance of stability and institutions.  Hegel's conception of human societies as entities greater than the individuals who constitute them influenced nineteenth century [[romantic nationalism]] and its twentieth century excesses.  The [[Young Hegelians]], by contrast, took Hegel's thoughts on societies shaped by the forces of social conflict for a doctrine of [[social progress|progress]], and attempted to chart a course that would manipulate these forces to lead to various improved outcomes. Karl Marx's doctrine of "historical inevitabilities" and [[historical materialism]] is one of the more influential reactions to this side of Hegel's thought. Significantly, [[Karl Marx]]'s [[Marx's theory of alienation|theory of alienation]] comes full circle to the thought of the Hegelian right, arguing among other things that [[capitalism]] disrupts the rooted nature of traditional relationships between workers and their work.
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[[Ernst Troeltsch]] (1865–1923), a German Protestant theologian, in his ''Der Krisis des Historismus'' ''(The Crisis of Historicism)'' defined historicism in contrast to rationalism. He characterized rationalism as an attempt to find common universal laws by ignoring unique qualitative differences of diverse human experiences. Troeltsch argued that the ideas of [[natural law]] was running through European thoughts from [[Stoicism]], [[Christianity]], and modern [[positivism (philosophy)|positivism]], which equally believed in the validity of a-temporal universal principles. Historicism, on the contrary, emphasizes the uniqueness, diversity, and differences in social historical phenomena. However, historicism risks falling into a form of [[relativism]], and Troeltsch as well as Meinecke attempted to overcome this problem.
  
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Hegelian historicism is related to his ideas on the means by which human societies progress, specifically the [[Hegelian dialectic|dialectic]] and his conception of logic as reflecting the inner essential nature of reality. Hegel attributes the change to the "modern" need to interact with the world, where as ancient philosophers were self-contained, and medieval philosophers were monks. In his History of Philosophy Hegel writes:
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==Problem of historicism: Relativism==
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The problem of historicism is its risk of falling into [[relativism]]. Relativism undermines the concept of [[truth]] or universally valid knowledge. If all knowledge is conditioned by history, knowledge has to be relative to particular factors of the given era or time of history and there is no universally valid, eternally unchanging knowledge. Critics view historicism as a danger that undermines the foundation of truth or the idea of universally valid knowledge. Some also attempt to overcome relativism while maintaining the historicity of knowledge. (The general problem of relativism is as old as philosophy. One can find a prime example of the battle against relativism in [[Plato]]’s challenge of the relativist claims of the [[Sophists]].)
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:"In modern times things are very different; now we no longer see philosophic individuals who constitute a class by themselves. With the present day all difference has disappeared; philosophers are not monks, for we find them generally in connection with the world, participating with others in some common work or calling. They live, not independently, but in the relation of citizens, or they occupy public offices and take part in the life of the state. Certainly they may be private persons, but if so, their position as such does not in any way isolate them from their other relationship. They are involved in present conditions, in the world and its work and progress. Thus their philosophy is only by the way, a sort of luxury and superfluity. This difference is really to be found in the manner in which outward conditions have taken shape after the building up of the inward world of religion. In modern times, namely, on account of the reconciliation of the worldly principle with itself, the external world is at rest, is brought into order - worldly relationships, conditions, modes of life, have become constituted and organized in a manner which is conformable to nature and rational. We see a universal, comprehensible connection, and with that individuality likewise attains another character and nature, for it is no longer the plastic individuality of the ancients. This connection is of such power that every individuality is under its dominion, and yet at the same time can construct for itself an inward world." {{fact}}
 
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This view that entanglement in society creates an indissoluble bond with expression, would be an influential question in philosophy going forward, namely, the requirements for individuality. It would be taken up by [[Nietzsche]], [[John Dewey]] and [[Michel Foucault]] directly, as well as in the work of numerous artists and authors. There have been various responses to Hegel's challenge. The Romantic period focused on the ability of individual genius to transcend time and place, and use the materials from their heritage to fashion works which were beyond determination. The modern would advance versions of John Locke's infinite malleability of the human animal. Post-structuralism would argue that since history is not present, but only the image of history, that while an individual era or power structure might focus on a particular history, that the contradictions within the story would hinder the very purposes that the history was constructed to advance.
 
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=== Anthropological Historicism ===
 
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Within [[anthropology]] and other sciences which study the past, historicism has a different meaning. It is associated with the work of [[Franz Boas]]. His theory took the [[Diffusion (anthropology)|diffusionist]] concept that there were a few "cradles of civilization" which grew outwards in circles, and merged it with the idea that societies would adapt to their circumstances, which is called [[historical particularism]]. The school of historicism grew up in response to [[Classical social evolutionism|unilinear theories]] that social development reflected adaptive fitness, and therefore existed on a spectrum. While these theories were espoused by [[Charles Darwin]] and many of his students, historicism was neither anti-selection, nor anti-evolution. However, it attacked the notion that there was one normative spectrum of development, instead focusing on how local conditions would create adaptations to the local environment. What was adaptive for one region might not be so for another. This conclusion has likewise been adopted by modern forms of biological evolutionary theory.
 
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The primary method of historicism was empirical, namely that there were so many requisite inputs into a society or event, that only by focusing on the data available could a theory of the source be determined. In this view, grand theories are unprovable, and instead intensive field work would determine the most likely explanation and history of a culture, and hence it is named Historicism. Boas would later teach at [[Columbia University]] and this would produce a school of thought based on his ideas.
 
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This view would produce a wide range of definition of what, exactly, constituted culture and history, but in each case the only means of explaining it was in terms of the historical particulars of the culture itself.
 
  
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== Variants of historicism ==
 
=== Popper's attack on historicism ===
 
=== Popper's attack on historicism ===
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[[Karl Popper]] used the term "historicism" in ''The Poverty of Historicism'' and “The Open Society and Its Enemies,” to mean: "An approach to the social sciences which assumes that ''historical prediction'' is their primary aim, and which assumes that this aim is attainable by discovering the 'rhythms' or the 'patterns,' the 'laws' or the 'trends' that underlie the evolution of history" (p. 3 of ''The Poverty of Historicism,'' italics in original). Karl Popper wrote with reference to [[Hegel]]'s theory of [[history]], which he criticized extensively. However, there is a wide dispute as to whether Popper's description of "historicism" is an accurate description of Hegel’s thought, or more a reflection of his own philosophical antagonists, including [[Spengler]]’s theories, which predicted a future course of events based on an analysis of the past, and [[Marxism-Leninism|Marxist-Leninist]] thought, then widely held as posing a challenge to the philosophical basis of the [[Western World]].
  
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[[Karl Popper]] used the term ''historicism'' in his influential books ''The Poverty of Historicism'' and [[The Open Society and Its Enemies]], to mean: "an approach to the social sciences which assumes that ''historical prediction'' is their primary aim, and which assumes that this aim is attainable by discovering the 'rhythms' or the 'patterns', the 'laws' or the 'trends' that underlie the evolution of history" (p. 3 of ''The Poverty of Historicism'', italics in original). Karl Popper wrote with reference to [[Hegel]]'s theory of [[history]], which he criticized extensively. However, there is wide dispute whether Popper's description of "historicism" is an accurate description of Hegel, or more a reflection of his own philosophical antagonists, including [[Marxism-Leninism|Marxist-Leninist]] thought, then widely held as posing a challenge to the philosophical basis of the [[Western world|West]], as well as theories such as [[Spengler]]'s which drew predictions about the future course of events from the past.
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In ''The Open Society and Its Enemies,'' Popper attacks "historicism" and its proponents, among whom he identifies and singles out Hegel, [[Plato]], and [[Marx]]—calling them all "enemies of the open society." The objection he makes is that historicist positions, by claiming that there is an inevitable and [[determinism|deterministic]] pattern to [[history]], abrogate the [[democracy|democratic]] responsibility of each human being to make his or her own free contributions to the evolution of [[society]], thus leading society to [[totalitarianism]].
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In [[The Open Society and Its Enemies]], Popper attacks "historicism" and its proponents, among whom as well as Hegel he identifies and singles out [[Plato]] and [[Marx]] — calling them all "enemies of the open society".  The objection he makes is that historicist positions, by claiming that there is an inevitable and [[determinism|deterministic]] pattern to [[history]], abrogate the [[democracy|democratic]] responsibility of each one of us to make our own free contributions to the evolution of [[society]], and hence lead to [[totalitarianism]].
 
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=== New Historicism ===
 
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{{main|New Historicism}}
 
  
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Since the 1950's, when [[Lacan]] and [[Foucault]] argued that each epoch has its own knowledge system, which individuals are inexorably entangled with, many [[post-structuralist]]s have used ''historicism'' to describe the view that all questions must be settled within the cultural and social context that they are raised in, answers cannot be found by appeal to an external truth, but only within the confines of the norms and forms that phrase the question.  This version of historicism holds that there are only the raw texts, markings and artifacts that exist in the present, and the conventions used to decode them. This school of thought sometimes goes by the name of ''New Historicism''.
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=== New historicism ===
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Since the 1950s, when [[Jacques_Lacan|Lacan]] and [[Michel_Foucault|Foucault]] argued that each epoch has its own knowledge system within which individuals are inexorably entangled with, many [[post-structuralist]]s have used ''historicism'' to describe the view that all questions must be settled within the cultural and social context that they are raised in.  They have also asserted that answers cannot be found by appealing to an external truth, but can only be found within the confines of the norms and forms that phrase the question.  This version of historicism holds that there are only the raw texts, markings, and artifacts that exist in the present, and the conventions used to decode them. This school of thought sometimes goes by the name of New Historicism.
  
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The same label, ''new historicism'' is also employed for a school of literary scholarship which interprets a [[poem]], [[drama]], etc. as an expression of the power-structures of the surrounding society. [[Stephen Greenblatt]] is an example of this school.
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The same label, "new historicism," also refers to a school of literary scholarship which interprets a [[poem]], [[drama]], etc. as an expression of social power-structures. [[Stephen Greenblatt]] is an example of someone that follows this school of thought.
  
 
=== Modern historicism ===
 
=== Modern historicism ===
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Within the context of twentieth century philosophy, the conflict over whether a-historical and immanent methodologies such as [[positivism (philosophy)|positivism]] and [[analytics philosophy|linguistic analysis]] were sufficient or whether context, background, and culture are important beyond the mere need to decode words, phrases, and references. While post-structural historicism is relativist in its orientation, that is, it sees each culture as its own frame of reference, a large number of thinkers have embraced the need for understanding historical context.  This is not because culture is self-referential, but because there is no more compressed means of conveying all of the relevant information except through history. This view is often seen as being rooted in the works of [[Benedetto Croce]].
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Within the context of 20th century philosophy, the conflict over whether ahistorical and immanent methodologies were sufficient to understand meaning — that is to say, what you see is what you get positivism — or whether context, background and culture are important beyond the mere need to decode words, phrases and references. While post-structural historicism is relativist in its orientation, that is, it sees each culture as its own frame of reference, a large number of thinkers have embraced the need for historical context, not because culture is self-referential, but because there is no more compressed means of conveying all of the relevant information except through history. This view is often seen as being rooted in the work of [[Bennedetto Croce]]. Recent philosophers in this tradition include [[Thomas Kuhn]].
 
  
 
=== Biblical historicism ===
 
=== Biblical historicism ===
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{{main|Historicism (Christian eschatology)}}
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In [[Christianity|Christian]] circles, the term ''historicism'' refers to the confessional [[Protestantism|Protestant]] form of prophetical interpretation.  This theory holds that the fulfillment of [[Bible|biblical]] [[prophecy]] has taken place throughout history and continues to take place today, as opposed to other methods of interpretation that limit the time-frame of prophecy-fulfillment to the past or to the future.  This method of historicism is what led reformers throughout Europe to criticize papacy. Examples of famous Christians and sects that declared the pope as the antichrist include the Waldensians, Albigenses, Lollards, Lutherans, Calvinists, Hussians, a host of individuals including the father of the modern English Bible [[William Tyndale]], and even articles of faith such as the Westminster Confession of Faith.
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In [[Christianity|Christian]] circles, the term ''historicism'' refers to the confessional [[Protestantism|Protestant]] form of prophetical interpretation which holds that the fulfillment of [[Bible|biblical]] [[prophecy]] has taken place throughout history and continues to take place today; as opposed to other methods which limit the time-frame of prophecy-fulfillment to the past or to the future.  The historicist method is what led reformers throughout Europe to declare that the pope was the man of sin sitting on the seven hills of Rome. Examples of famous Christians and sects declaring the pope to be the antichrist include the Waldensians, Albigenses, Lollards, Lutherans, Calvinists, Hussians, and a host of individuals, including the father of the modern English Bible William Tyndale and even articles of faith such as the Westminster Confession of Faith. Protestant sites that continue to declare the pope as the antichrist using the historicist method include those listed below under the External links.
 
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== See also ==
 
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* [[sociocultural evolution]]
 
  
 
== References ==
 
== References ==
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*Gadamer, Hans Georg. ''Truth and Method.'' New York: Continuum, 1993. ISBN 0826405851
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* [[Hans-Georg Gadamer]] ''Truth and Method''
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*Hamilton, Paul. ''Historicism: The New Critical Idiom.'' New York: Routledge, 1996. ISBN 0415133114
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* [[Ronald J. Pestritto]] ''[[Woodrow Wilson]] and the roots of modern liberalism'' 2005
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*Hegel, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich, and J. Sibree. ''The Philosophy of History.'' New York: Dover Publications, 1956. ISBN 0486201120
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* [[Karl Popper|Popper, Karl]]. 1945. ''The Open Society and Its Enemies'' (in 2 volumes). (ISBN 0-691-01968-1) Routledge.
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*Morris, Wesley. ''Toward a New Historicism.'' Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1972. ISBN 0691061556
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* [[Karl Popper|Popper, Karl]]. 1993. ''The Poverty of Historicism''. (ISBN 0-415-06569-0) Routledge.
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*Popper, Karl Raimund. ''The Poverty of Historicism.'' Boston: Beacon Press, 1957.
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* [[G.W.F Hegel]] ''Philosophy of History''
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*Popper, Karl R. ''The Open Society and Its Enemies.'' London: Routledge, 2002. ISBN 0415282365 
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* [[Franz Boas]] ''The Mind of Primitive Man'' 1911
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*Sterling, Richard W. ''Ethics in a World of Power; The Political Ideas of Friedrich Meinecke.'' Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1958.
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*Troeltsch, Ernst, James Luther Adams, and Walter F. Bense. ''Selected Essays.'' Cambridge, Mass: Weston College, 1971.
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*Veeser, H. Aram. ''The New Historicism.'' New York: Routledge, 1989. ISBN 0415900700
  
 
== External links ==
 
== External links ==
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All links retrieved January 9, 2018.
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;Hegel
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* [http://www.hegel.org/ The Hegel Society of America].
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* [http://www.hegel.net/ Hegel.net].
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* [http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/hegel/ Hegel in Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy].
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* [http://www.gwfhegel.org/ gwfhegel.org].
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* [http://www.historyguide.org/intellect/hegel.html Hegel page in 'The History Guide'].
  
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Hegel
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;Anthropology
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* [http://www.as.ua.edu/ant/Faculty/murphy/histor.htm Historicism in Anthropology].
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* [http://www.hegel.org/ The Hegel Society of America]
 
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* [http://www.hegel.net/ Site Hegel]
 
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* [http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/hegel/ Hegel in Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy]
 
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* [http://www.gwfhegel.org/ gwfhegel.org]
 
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* [http://www.historyguide.org/intellect/hegel.html Hegel page in 'The History Guide']
 
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Anthropology
 
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* [http://www.as.ua.edu/ant/Faculty/murphy/histor.htm Historicism in Anthropology]
 
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Popper
 
Popper
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* [http://lachlan.bluehaze.com.au/books/popper_poverty_of_historicism.html Extracts from ''The Poverty of Historicism''].
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;Biblical Prophecy
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* [http://www.historicism.net/ Historicism Research Foundation].
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* [http://www.historicism.com/ Historicism.com].
  
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* [http://lachlan.bluehaze.com.au/books/popper_poverty_of_historicism.html Extracts from ''The Poverty of Historicism'']
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;General Philosophy Sources
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*[http://plato.stanford.edu/ Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy]  
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New Historicism
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*[http://www.iep.utm.edu/ The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy]  
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*[http://www.bu.edu/wcp/PaidArch.html Paideia Project Online]  
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* [http://www.sou.edu/English/Hedges/Sodashop/RCenter/Theory/Explaind/nhistexp.htm New Historicism Explained]  
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*[http://www.gutenberg.org/ Project Gutenberg]  
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* [http://www.nhinet.org/ryn-rob.htm ''Defining Historicism''] by [[Claes G. Ryn]]
 
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* [http://www.as.ua.edu/ant/Faculty/murphy/histor.htm M. D. Murphy, ''Historicism'']
 
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Biblical Prophecy
 
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* [http://www.historicism.net/ historicism.net]
 
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* [http://www.historicism.com/ historicism.com]
 
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* [http://www.rev14.info/ rev14.info]
 
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* [http://www.historicist.com/ historicist.com]  
 
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* [http://www.ianpaisley.org/ ianpaisley.org]
 
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* [http://www.truthleftbehind.com/ truthleftbehind.com]
 
  
 
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Latest revision as of 15:55, 25 January 2023

Historicism is a position that holds that all knowledge and cognition are historically conditioned. It is also widely used in diverse disciplines to designate an approach from a historical perspective. The term is used both in the pejorative and neutral sense. Historicism in the most narrow sense signifies a philosophical position that appeared in Europe during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, primarily in Germany, held by a number of thinkers in diverse disciplines, such as philosophy, history, law, and economics. Historicism challenged a progressive view of history that interpreted history as a linear, uniform process that operated according to universal laws, a view widely held by thinkers since the Enlightenment. Historicism stressed the unique diversity of historical contexts and stressed the importance of developing specific methods and theories appropriate to each unique historical context.

Historicism also often challenged the concept of truth and the notion of rationality of modernity. Modern thinkers held that reason is a universal faculty of the mind that is free of interpretation, that can grasp universal and unchanging truth. Historicism questioned this notion of rationality and truth, and argued for the historical context of knowledge and reason. Although individual theories vary as to how and to what extent knowledge is historically conditioned, historicism is an explicit formulation of the historicity of knowledge. The major question to historicism is its relativist implications. If all knowledge is conditioned by history, there is no objectivity or universality in knowledge. The earlier formulation of historicism was made by Vico (1668-1744) and Herder (1744–1803), and the historicity of knowledge is one of the central issues continually debated today.

Historical background

Vico (1668–1744) and Herder (1744–1803) developed the archetypal models of historicism. Vico criticized the concept that truth transcends history and argued that truth is conditioned by human history. Herder rejected central ideas of the Enlightenment, such as a historical view of humanity, concept of universal rationality, and belief in the progress of human history according to the development of reason. These ideas of the Enlightenment were built upon the presuppositions that there was only one kind of rationality applicable to all people and cultures and that human history is a linear process of progress whose pattern of development was the same for all. Herder argued that each historical period and culture contains a unique value system, and he conceived history as the aggregate of diverse, unique histories. Herder stressed the importance of understanding the unique context of each historical period in order to make an authentic interpretation of the past.

In nineteenth century Europe, particularly in Germany, historicism flourished in various disciplinary areas. In the field of law, Friedrich Carl von Savigny (1779–1861) developed the German Historical School of Law in opposition to theorists of Natural law of the Enlightenment. He argued that laws, like language, reflect the unique history and customs of each region or race.

In economics, Friedrich List (1789-1846) criticized the idea of the universal economic laws of classical economics and argued that economic principles and policies had to be made according to unique historical contexts. List’s ideas influenced Gustav von Schmoller (1838–1917), a German economic theorist who also held a historicist perspective.

Major historical theorists include Leopold von Ranke (1795–1886), Johann Gustav Droysen (1808–1884), and Friedrich Meinecke (1862–1954). They opposed a progressive view of history, which interprets history as a process of uniform development based upon the progress of reason. They were also critical of the speculative interpretation of history as exemplified by Hegel. They argued that there were diverse and unique characteristics to each region and people, which were irreducible to abstract uniform patterns based upon abstract speculative ideas in philosophy. Ranke, for example, approached history based upon a critical examination of primary documents and sources as opposed to Hegel’s speculative approach.

Wilhelm Dilthey (1833–1911) attempted to establish a conceptual formulation of historicism in philosophy. Dilthey challenged the concept of reason as free of interpretation, neutral, and an a-historical faculty. This concept of rationality can be traced back to the ideals of the Enlightenment. Dilthey’s direct target was Kant, who held the same concept of rationality as those of the Enlightenment. In his unfinished work, “The Structure of the Historical World in the Human Sciences,” Dilthey tried to carry out the task of formulating a critique of historical reason, which he presented in contrast to Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason.

Dilthey argued that events in history are unique and cannot be repeated. To understand the event, one must leave one’s present context of understanding and view it from the historical context of that event. Hermeneutics is art of interpreting the historical contexts of events in human life.

For Dilthey, experience is essentially interpretive and rationality is also socially and historically contextualized and conditioned. Based upon this insight, Dilthey advanced the tradition of hermeneutics developed by Friedrich Schleiermacher. Hermeneuticity of rationality was carried on by Heidegger, and Gadamer. Although Husserl criticized Dilthey for being a proponent of historicism, other philosophers in the hermeneutic traditions do not generally fall into the category of historicism.

Among the Neo-Kantians, Wilhelm Windelband (1848–1915) and Heinrich John Rickert (1863–1936) tried to formulate methodological differences between historical science and natural science. Windelband characterized historical sciences as a type of discipline which describes unique individual characteristics of events and natural sciences as that which explains phenomena by laws. Rickert distinguished science into natural science and cultural science, and subsumed historical science under cultural science.

Ernst Troeltsch (1865–1923), a German Protestant theologian, in his Der Krisis des Historismus (The Crisis of Historicism) defined historicism in contrast to rationalism. He characterized rationalism as an attempt to find common universal laws by ignoring unique qualitative differences of diverse human experiences. Troeltsch argued that the ideas of natural law was running through European thoughts from Stoicism, Christianity, and modern positivism, which equally believed in the validity of a-temporal universal principles. Historicism, on the contrary, emphasizes the uniqueness, diversity, and differences in social historical phenomena. However, historicism risks falling into a form of relativism, and Troeltsch as well as Meinecke attempted to overcome this problem.

Problem of historicism: Relativism

The problem of historicism is its risk of falling into relativism. Relativism undermines the concept of truth or universally valid knowledge. If all knowledge is conditioned by history, knowledge has to be relative to particular factors of the given era or time of history and there is no universally valid, eternally unchanging knowledge. Critics view historicism as a danger that undermines the foundation of truth or the idea of universally valid knowledge. Some also attempt to overcome relativism while maintaining the historicity of knowledge. (The general problem of relativism is as old as philosophy. One can find a prime example of the battle against relativism in Plato’s challenge of the relativist claims of the Sophists.)

Variants of historicism

Popper's attack on historicism

Karl Popper used the term "historicism" in The Poverty of Historicism and “The Open Society and Its Enemies,” to mean: "An approach to the social sciences which assumes that historical prediction is their primary aim, and which assumes that this aim is attainable by discovering the 'rhythms' or the 'patterns,' the 'laws' or the 'trends' that underlie the evolution of history" (p. 3 of The Poverty of Historicism, italics in original). Karl Popper wrote with reference to Hegel's theory of history, which he criticized extensively. However, there is a wide dispute as to whether Popper's description of "historicism" is an accurate description of Hegel’s thought, or more a reflection of his own philosophical antagonists, including Spengler’s theories, which predicted a future course of events based on an analysis of the past, and Marxist-Leninist thought, then widely held as posing a challenge to the philosophical basis of the Western World.

In The Open Society and Its Enemies, Popper attacks "historicism" and its proponents, among whom he identifies and singles out Hegel, Plato, and Marx—calling them all "enemies of the open society." The objection he makes is that historicist positions, by claiming that there is an inevitable and deterministic pattern to history, abrogate the democratic responsibility of each human being to make his or her own free contributions to the evolution of society, thus leading society to totalitarianism.

New historicism

Since the 1950s, when Lacan and Foucault argued that each epoch has its own knowledge system within which individuals are inexorably entangled with, many post-structuralists have used historicism to describe the view that all questions must be settled within the cultural and social context that they are raised in. They have also asserted that answers cannot be found by appealing to an external truth, but can only be found within the confines of the norms and forms that phrase the question. This version of historicism holds that there are only the raw texts, markings, and artifacts that exist in the present, and the conventions used to decode them. This school of thought sometimes goes by the name of New Historicism.

The same label, "new historicism," also refers to a school of literary scholarship which interprets a poem, drama, etc. as an expression of social power-structures. Stephen Greenblatt is an example of someone that follows this school of thought.

Modern historicism

Within the context of twentieth century philosophy, the conflict over whether a-historical and immanent methodologies such as positivism and linguistic analysis were sufficient or whether context, background, and culture are important beyond the mere need to decode words, phrases, and references. While post-structural historicism is relativist in its orientation, that is, it sees each culture as its own frame of reference, a large number of thinkers have embraced the need for understanding historical context. This is not because culture is self-referential, but because there is no more compressed means of conveying all of the relevant information except through history. This view is often seen as being rooted in the works of Benedetto Croce.

Biblical historicism

In Christian circles, the term historicism refers to the confessional Protestant form of prophetical interpretation. This theory holds that the fulfillment of biblical prophecy has taken place throughout history and continues to take place today, as opposed to other methods of interpretation that limit the time-frame of prophecy-fulfillment to the past or to the future. This method of historicism is what led reformers throughout Europe to criticize papacy. Examples of famous Christians and sects that declared the pope as the antichrist include the Waldensians, Albigenses, Lollards, Lutherans, Calvinists, Hussians, a host of individuals including the father of the modern English Bible William Tyndale, and even articles of faith such as the Westminster Confession of Faith.

References
ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

  • Gadamer, Hans Georg. Truth and Method. New York: Continuum, 1993. ISBN 0826405851
  • Hamilton, Paul. Historicism: The New Critical Idiom. New York: Routledge, 1996. ISBN 0415133114
  • Hegel, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich, and J. Sibree. The Philosophy of History. New York: Dover Publications, 1956. ISBN 0486201120
  • Morris, Wesley. Toward a New Historicism. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1972. ISBN 0691061556
  • Popper, Karl Raimund. The Poverty of Historicism. Boston: Beacon Press, 1957.
  • Popper, Karl R. The Open Society and Its Enemies. London: Routledge, 2002. ISBN 0415282365
  • Sterling, Richard W. Ethics in a World of Power; The Political Ideas of Friedrich Meinecke. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1958.
  • Troeltsch, Ernst, James Luther Adams, and Walter F. Bense. Selected Essays. Cambridge, Mass: Weston College, 1971.
  • Veeser, H. Aram. The New Historicism. New York: Routledge, 1989. ISBN 0415900700

External links

All links retrieved January 9, 2018.

Hegel
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Biblical Prophecy
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