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Historicism

What actually is it? I have heard a lot of conflicting explanations of it, ranging from it being a point in history where we suddenly view the past in a totally different way, eg Mao Tse-tung cultural revolution and burning/re-writing of books allowed for Chinese history to be re-written, to it be the concept that each century/period is built upon its predecessors but is also independant from them because the context of previous times cannot be replicated. I am now very confused!! So any help would be appreciated
Reply 1
Historicism is the theory that:

1. that there is an organic succession of developments (also known as historism or the German historismus), and
2. that local conditions and peculiarities influence the results in a decisive way.

i hope that helps..
Reply 2
bigforehead
Historicism is the theory that:

1. that there is an organic succession of developments (also known as historism or the German historismus), and
2. that local conditions and peculiarities influence the results in a decisive way.

i hope that helps..


Yeah, i read it in a book as Historismus! Thanks!
Reply 3
So, now you've got the cut-n-pastes from Wikepedia or some such, telling you that it's an "organic pineapple known as historismus...." All clear now? No! Actually, this not a very good article. It's far to long on big-name philosophers, like Hegel, and sadly short of actual working historians who did the empirical work to establish this theory.

Historicism is what is known as a world-view. It's a way of looking at everthing in the world as essentially the product of historical development. The precise nature of that development is open to a variety of views and is still hotly debated. However, what all historicists can ultimately agree upon is the importance of "development". That is to grasp that every aspect of history must be encountered "on the move", as it were, and in process of change.

There have been many, many historians over the centuries who have maintained the importance of the past in the formation of the present. Who could argue? However, it was not until an obscure 18th Century writer called Herder published a book called the Idea for a Universal History (Ideen) that historicism (as yet not called that) was born. Importantly, Herder maintained that every culture has its own in-built passage of development that cannot be altered by externalities. That's why the Nazis loved him, by the way. He was the founding father of multi-culturalism, ironically. However, Herder was short on theory and long on loving description and that has always been the halllmark of historicism.


More on this later.
Reply 4
it was her question, and if she found it useful then i dont see what the problem is...chill out...
Reply 5
Don't argue over it on my account guys! But to clear the issue up a little, bigforehead's answer gave me a direction in which to channel some later research as some of the explanations i had been given by various individuals and books have been far-ranging and a little vague.
Nbak, your response, however, is really interesting and the most detailed account i have encountered.
Reply 6
Sure. I was going to say a little more about historicsm since there's one or two important distinctions to be made between historians and historicists, as such. There is also the question of literary historicism and new-historicism. However, I would not wish to spoil bigforehead's gig, here.
Reply 7
wow, for one thread you sound quite bitter..

go ahead...i don't actually see it as "spoiling my gig" as you so put it, i just come on here to try and help people out (whether i get chunks of wikipedia or not). and if you want to do the same then i would have thought that you could share your information, as opposed to withholding it and sounding scorned somewhat...
Reply 8
..................ok. Any book recommendations to read more about it?
Reply 9
Okay,
This is no longer about history; historicism; whatever... So I'm out. Try Paul Hamilton's Historicism (The New Critical Idiom) which is a mercifully short paper back introduction to the subject.
Reply 10
nbak
Okay,
This is no longer about history; historicism; whatever... So I'm out. Try Paul Hamilton's Historicism (The New Critical Idiom) which is a mercifully short paper back introduction to the subject.



Thanks nbak.
For the record, i don't understand how it is no longer about the original topic, as the original question still stands and the little debate above was about the topic.

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