Naturalism and Historical Understanding--Essays on the Philosophy of John Herman Randall, Jr.John P. Anton

1968 ◽  
Vol 35 (1) ◽  
pp. 73-75
Author(s):  
Leslie Armour ◽  
James R. Horne
Keyword(s):  
Historical Understanding

Appropriating Hobbes

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Boucher
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
Carl Schmitt ◽  
Historical Understanding ◽  
Main Claim ◽  
The World ◽  
Michael Oakeshott ◽  
Eighteenth And Nineteenth Centuries

The aim of this book is not to trace the changing fortunes of the interpretation of one of the most sophisticated and famous political philosophers who ever lived, but to glimpse here and there his place in different contexts, and how his interpreters see their own images reflected in him, or how they define themselves in contrast to him. The main claim is that there is no Hobbes independent of the interpretations that arise from his appropriation in these various contexts and which serve to present him to the world. There is no one perfect context that enables us to get at what Hobbes ‘really meant’, despite the numerous claims to the contrary. He is almost indistinguishable from the context in which he is read. This contention is justified with reference to hermeneutics, and particularly the theories of Gadamer, Koselleck, and Ricoeur, contending that through a process of ‘distanciation’ Hobbes’s writings have been appropriated and commandeered to do service in divergent contexts such as philosophical idealism; debates over the philosophical versus historical understanding of texts; and in ideological disputations, and emblematic characterizations of him by various disciplines such as law, politics, and international relations. The book illustrates the capacity of a text to take on the colouration of its surroundings by exploring and explicating the importance of contexts in reading and understanding how and why particular interpretations of Hobbes have emerged, such as those of Carl Schmitt and Michael Oakeshott, or the international jurists of the seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries.

The Ethical Presupposition of Historical Understanding

2017 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 223-241
Author(s):  
Natan Elgabsi
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Method ◽  
Historical Understanding ◽  
Historical Science ◽  
Ethical Attitudes ◽  
The Past ◽  
Annales School ◽  
Ways Of Life

Abstract Discussions on Marc Bloch usually focus on The Annales School, his comparative method, or his defence of a distinct historical science. In contrast, I emphasise his seldom-investigated ideas of what historical understanding should involve. I contend that Bloch distinguishes between three different ethical attitudes in studying people and ways of life from the past: scientific passivity; critical judgements; understanding. The task of the historian amounts to understanding other worlds in their own terms. This essay is an exploration of Bloch’s methodology and what historical understanding is needed to do justice to cultures that belong to the past, both conceptually and practically.

'Barocke' Lyrik lesen

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dirk Werle
Keyword(s):  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Literary History ◽  
17Th Century ◽  
Historical Understanding ◽  
Points Of View ◽  
Century Poetry ◽  
Pop Literature

How should one go about reading German 17th century poetry? Dirk Werle answers this question on the basis of a consistently historical understanding of both genre and epoch. In the seventeenth century, “poetry” had a decidedly different meaning from what we take it to be today, and there was no such thing as our term “Baroque”. For each of the chapter's introductory analyses, from which more general considerations and points of view are developed, poems have been selected that do not appear in relevant anthologies and therefore allow unbiased access to a fascinating field of literary history. The Author shows that 17th century poetry is characterized by a poetics of repetition, based on affinity to music and the principle of convivial play. It is a form of pop literature that does not directly refer to reality, but creates a poetic world all its own. To grasp this phenomenon, a “hermeneutics of simplicity” is called for, which is introduced and explained in this book.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document