Kittsteiner’s History Out of Joint

2021 ◽  
Vol 15 (3) ◽  
pp. 409-425
Author(s):  
Mario Wimmer
Keyword(s):  
Philosophical Analysis ◽  
Close Reading ◽  
Historical Time ◽  
Historical Process

Abstract In this article, I portray both the “thinking historian” Heinz-Dieter Kittsteiner and his philosophical analysis of the unavailability of the historical process. In his book Out of Control (2004), Kittsteiner builds on Immanuel Kant’s concept of the historical sign to demonstrate how history is out of joint due to the contingent character of the historical process. This understanding demands a new theory of historical time and of historiographical practice, which I reconstruct through a close reading of a chapter of Kittsteiner’s book.

scholarly journals Historical process and historical time in Tom Stoppard’s drama

2020 ◽  
pp. 39-49
Author(s):  
I. S. Dvoryankina
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Distinctive Feature ◽  
Cultural Discourse ◽  
Individual Freedom ◽  
Historical Time ◽  
Historical Events ◽  
Historical Process ◽  
Great Chain Of Being ◽  
History Of

The article analyzes Tom Stoppard’s historical concept through philological, philosophical and cultural discourse. The article highlights the transformation of the playwright’s views on the historical process: from following the concept of postmodernism to consideration of historical process as included in the Great Chain of Being and objectification of historical events in accordance to Hegel’s determinism. The article covers the influence of Wilson’s and Berlin’s school of history of the ideas on the formation of Stoppard’s history concept. The article highlights the main issues addressed by Stoppard: individual freedom and protection of the human rights; it is noted that the moral and civic pathos of the plays is a distinctive feature of Stoppard’s drama.

Towards a Passing Theory of Literary Understanding

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Terence Cave
Keyword(s):  
Time Scale ◽  
Relevance Theory ◽  
Close Reading ◽  
Historical Time ◽  
Virtual Time ◽  
Micro Analysis

Relevance theory offers a model of communication where utterances are constantly updated by the speaker, inviting the listener to engage in a corresponding activity of inferential adjustment. In the case of literature, the potential time-scale of this activity is expanded, whether by the length of the text, the passage of historical time, or the demands of close reading. How then do incremental effects operate within the virtual time of literary utterance? How does one effect become a platform or trigger for others? This chapter touches on issues such as the situated logic of collocation and the ‘echoic’ as a way of approaching literary allusiveness, and brings together the micro-analysis of a line of poetry with a broader-scope reflection on the principles that operate over extended fictions. Adapting to literary understanding Davidson’s notion of a ‘passing theory’, it tracks the time-bound, ephemeral passage of verbal events through the reader’s cognitive focus.

From Theory to History, Via Midrash

2014 ◽  
pp. 326-367
Author(s):  
David Gillis
Keyword(s):  
Close Reading ◽  
Theoretical Knowledge ◽  
Historical Process ◽  
Sacred Objects ◽  
Insight Into

This chapter presents a commentary on ‘Laws of the Foundations of the Torah’, 6:9 and 7:3. Maimonides deploys aggadah to add extra layers of meaning in Mishneh torah. Where he makes intense use of biblical reference, close reading and attention to midrashic resonances can be rewarding. ‘Laws of the Foundations of the Torah’, 6:9, was interpreted as broadening the chapter's theme of avoiding desecration of sacred objects and texts to include the need for sensitive reading of texts. In ‘Laws of the Foundations of the Torah’, 7:3, the juxtaposition of Jacob's dream of the ladder with Ezekiel's vision of the chariot was found to refer to the combination of theoretical knowledge and insight into historical process in the vision of the prophet. This is reflected in the ontological and teleological dimensions of Mishneh torah's form.

Game historiosophy of A. Ivanov: the violence of form and the rehabilitation of meaning (based on the novels “Psoglavtsy” and “Pishcheblok”)

2021 ◽  
pp. 182-190
Author(s):  
M. L. Shtukkert ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Computer Game ◽  
State Power ◽  
Individual Choice ◽  
Historical Time ◽  
National History ◽  
Historical Process ◽  
The Past ◽  
Historical Issues

The paper analyzes the specificity of Ivanov’s historiosophy in two novels, “Psoglavtsy” and “Pishcheblok,” which are particularly interesting in this sense since in terms of genre, they do not correspond to the scale of historical issues as much as possible. These novels use the Gothic genre model, preserving the specifics of artistic space and type of hero. However, the generic Gothic time is replaced by historical time, experienced personally and subjectively. Meanwhile, a specific feature of Gothic time is retained, such as repetition, replaying a crisis moment of the past until the balance is restored. The author refuses a vector image of national history, forcing historical time to repeat itself in a cycle that resembles not only literary Gothic but also a computer game. It is not a question of bad infinity, but a game repetition, eventually leading to the “passage” of a crisis section of history. Thus, the struggle against genre form rehabilitates the content of national history. This principle also defines the history concept as a whole: A. Ivanov tends to see the historical process as including both the aggression of “form” (empire, state power, fate) and the defense of “content” (humanity revealed in individual choice), which, being opposed, are equally necessary for each other. Not only does the method based on the struggle and mutual necessity of form and content shape historiosophy in A. Ivanov’s novels, but it also organizes their artistic world. Ivanov’s game historiosophy is thus opposed to a postmodern game tending to destruct form and meaning.

scholarly journals Cyclism, Iterativity and Historical Parallels in the Framework of the Problem of Understanding the Historical Process

2020 ◽  
pp. 42-46
Author(s):  
Andrei Vladimirovich Povilaitis
Keyword(s):  
Significant Role ◽  
Comparative Method ◽  
Philosophy Of History ◽  
Philosophical Analysis ◽  
History Taking ◽  
Historical Aspect ◽  
Historical Process ◽  
Scientific Level ◽  
Key Concepts ◽  
First Time

The present study considers the problem of the method of historical parallels in the framework of the philosophy of history, taking into account its comparison with the concepts of iterativity and cy-clism. At the beginning of study, the author notes the relevance and analyzes the philosophical and historical aspect of the topic. The greater focus is placed on current research in this area. The work by T.S. Kondratieva “Bolsheviks-Jacobins and the Phantom of Thermidor”, which uses the method of historical parallels at the scientific level, is examined more carefully compared with other works. The au-thor not only analyzes this research, but also pro-vides his own comparisons related to it. The re-search methodology is based on socio-philosophical analysis, historical and comparative method. The method of historical parallels also plays a significant role. For the first time there is suggested the following chain of key concepts of the topic under consideration: cycle, iteration, laws of history. It is concluded that there are certain prob-lems of using the concept of historical cyclism, as well as there are advantages and limitations of the method of historical parallels.

Talking Machines

2020 ◽  
pp. 19-71
Author(s):  
Tom Vandeputte
Keyword(s):  
Decisive Role ◽  
Close Reading ◽  
Historical Time ◽  
Flow Of Time ◽  
Newspaper Articles

Journalism plays a decisive role in Kierkegaard’s early work, especially his largely neglected early writings. The “age” is presented in these writings in the form of a comedy whose main protagonists are reporters and newspaper readers, phrases and hearsay, and mistaken announcements and errant messages. Through a close reading of his newspaper articles of the 1830s, this chapter shows that this farce revolves around a certain “confusion” that, for Kierkegaard, finds an emblematic expression in the language of journalism. The scrutiny of the language of the newspapers undertaken here does not only form the basis of Kierkegaard’s early critique of philosophies of progress and development; as this chapter shows, it is also key to understanding his later attempts at developing a new theory of historical time—one that would crystallize in his concept of an “instant” (Øieblik) in which the flow of time is interrupted and exposed to an unforeseeable future.

scholarly journals Vivos Voco: Herzen's Past, Present, and Future

2014 ◽  
Vol 17 ◽  
pp. 36
Author(s):  
Kathleen Frances Parthe
Keyword(s):  
Philosophy Of History ◽  
First Century ◽  
Close Reading ◽  
Ordinary People ◽  
Historical Process ◽  
Twenty First Century

A close reading of the journalism, correspondence, and memoirs of Alexander Herzen (1812–1870) yields a finely tuned relationship to past, present, and future, but not a complete philosophy of history. Herzen described no system, but repeated key metaphors (e.g., the libretto) and concepts (e.g. contingency) that reflected his understanding of the historical process. For Herzen, history became interesting when it was relieved of predetermined plots and algebraic formulas. However much he studied Russia’s past and planned its future, his preference was for the present, where freedom is most fully experienced in debate and in the need to choose a path forward. He understood the instrumentality of history in how the lives of ordinary people were affected, which remained his measure of progress. Herzen was a “historian of the present,” and his insights are remarkably applicable to twenty-first-century Russia.

Anthropocenic Temporalities

2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 125-141
Author(s):  
Eduardo Mendieta ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Historical Time ◽  
Historical Process

The Anthropocene must also be seen as the convergence of the historicization of nature and human historicity, not simply metaphorically, but factually. As historical time is injected in nature (which putatively was beyond historical time) through anthropogenesis, resulting in our having to see nature as a product of a historical process, our understanding of time is being transformed. The Anthropocene must be understood as a temporalization of time tout court. The key concern is what could be called an Anthropocenic matrix of intelligibility and its corresponding image of Anthropos. In the time of the end of time and the time of the end, the new image of humanity is that of a destroyer of world(s).

Technological Change as Historical Process: The Case of the U.S. Pulp and Paper Industry, 1915–1940

1984 ◽  
Vol 44 (3) ◽  
pp. 775-799 ◽  
Author(s):  
Avi J. Cohen
Keyword(s):  
Technological Change ◽  
Paper Industry ◽  
Pulp And Paper Industry ◽  
Pulp And Paper ◽  
Historical Time ◽  
Technological Changes ◽  
Historical Process ◽  
Induced Innovation ◽  
General Explanation ◽  
The U.S

Technological changes in the U.S. pulp and paper industry between 1915 and 1940 are chronicled, and three patterns—evolutionary bias, output-increasing innovation in response to technological disequilibria, and differences in the timing of innovations between the 1920s and 1930s—are identified and explained by means of a theoretical framework for induced innovation. The framework conceptualizes technological change as a means for growth-seeking firms to overcome barriers to accumulation and provides a general explanation of induced innovation that is situated in historical time.

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