This book brings together historical thinkers from a variety of disciplinary backgrounds to offer original interpretations of the essence of history. It addresses why it is that the essence of history itself cannot be so easily thematised or conceptualised.
This book brings together historical thinkers from a variety of disciplinary backgrounds to offer original interpretations of the essence of history. It addresses why it is that the essence of history itself cannot be so easily thematised or conceptualised.
Restating the question of the essence of history is necessary because today it has largely been forgotten. Since Antiquity, history has been inextricably bound up with the problem of truth. Contemporary philosophy of history and historiography has branched out in many different directions. This complexity has made it nearly impossible for historical thinkers to engage outside of their own field. The relentless advancement of historical thought has almost completely neglected the question of the essence of history. The chapters in this volume respond to questions such as: What is history? What, in the ‘progress’ of historical thought from antiquity to modernity, did we lose along the way? And what does it mean, if it means anything at all, to have history, to be historical?
The Essence of History will be of interest to scholars and graduate students working in philosophy of history, historical theory and historiography, and ancient history.
Introduction: What is called History? Part 1: Does History have an
Essence?
1. The Essence of History
2. If History had an Essence, it wouldnt
be History Part 2: History as Past, Past as History?
3. The Past is an
Ambiguous Expression
4. Alain Badiou, the Metaphysics of the Event, and the
Meaning of History
5. Times Travellers
6. Historical Reflection and the
Passive Presence of the Historical Past Part 3: The End of History?
7.
Temporality, History and Crisis
8. Freedom and Homelessness: The Historical
Ground of Political Life
9. The Last Consequences of Historical Consciousness
Aaron Turner is the Assistant Director of the Knapp Foundation and a Research Associate at Royal Holloway, University of London. He is the editor of Reconciling Ancient and Modern Philosophies of History (2020) and Heidegger and Classical Thought (2024). He is currently writing his monograph, Thucydides and the Ground of History.
