Meaning, Truth, and Reference in Historical Representation

Frank R. Ankersmit

Frank R. Ankersmit

Meaning, Truth, and Reference in Historical Representation

Cornell University Press | 2012

https://doi.org/10.7591/9780801463853

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Contents

About this book

In this book, the noted intellectual historian Frank Ankersmit provides a systematic account of the problems of reference, truth, and meaning in historical writing. He works from the conviction that the historicist account of historical writing, associated primarily with Leopold von Ranke and Wilhelm von Humboldt, is essentially correct but that its original idealist and romanticist idiom needs to be translated into more modern terms. Rehabilitating historicism for the contemporary philosophy of history, he argues, "reveals the basic truths about the nature of the past itself, how we relate to it, and how we make sense of the past in historical writing."

At the heart of Ankersmit's project is a sharp distinction between interpretation and representation. The historical text, he holds, is first and foremost a representation of some part of the past, not an interpretation. The book's central chapters address the concept of historical representation from the perspectives of reference, truth, and meaning. Ankersmit then goes on to discuss the possible role of experience in the history writing, which leads directly to a consideration of subjectivity and ethics in the historian's practice. Ankersmit concludes with a chapter on political history, which he maintains is the "basis and condition of all other variants of historical writing." Ankersmit’s rehabilitation of historicism is a powerfully original and provocative contribution to the debate about the nature of historical writing.

Author information

AnkersmitFrank R.:

Frank Ankersmit is Emeritus Professor of Intellectual History and Philosophy of History at Groningen University. His many books include History and Tropology, Aesthetic Politics, and Sublime Historical Experience.

Reviews

Allan Megill, University of Virginia, author of Historical Knowledge, Historical Error: A Contemporary Guide to Practice:

"In my view, Frank Ankersmit is the most original and important philosopher of history writing today. There is no question but that he knows this field inside out—he seems to have read virtually everything relevant to it. Even more important, he has an original and extremely stimulating perspective on the object of philosophy of history, namely, the human attempt to come to grips with the past. Meaning, Truth, and Reference in Historical Representation significantly clarifies Ankersmit's views and claims."

Frontmatter Free access PDF PDF	i
Contents Free access PDF PDF	vii
Preface Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	ix
Acknowledgments Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	xi
1. Historicism Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	1
2. Time Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	29
3. Interpretation Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	48
4. Representation Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	64
5. Reference Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	87
6. Truth Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	102
7. Meaning Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	126
8. Presence Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	157
9. Experience (I) Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	175
10. Experience (II) Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	191
11. Subjectivity Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	220
12. Politics Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	245
Index Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	257

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Meaning, Truth, and Reference in Historical Representation

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