How can we take history seriously as real and relevant? Despite the hazards of politically dangerous or misleading accounts of the past, we live our lives in a great network of cooperation with other actors; past, present, and future. We study and reflect on the past as a way of exercising a responsibility for shared action.
In each of the chapters ofFull HistorySmith poses a key question about history as a concern for conscious participants in the sharing of action, starting with What Is Historical Meaningfulness? and ending with How Can History Have an Aim? Constructing new models of historical meaning while engaging critically with perspectives offered by Ranke, Dilthey, Rickert, Heidegger, Eliade, Sartre, Foucault, and Arendt, Smith develops a philosophical account of thinking about history that moves beyond postmodernist skepticism.Full Historyseeks to expand the cast of significant actors, establishing an inclusive version of the historical that recognizes large-scale cumulative actions but also encourages critical revision and expansion of any paradigm of shared action.
Steven G. Smithis Jennie Carlisle Golding Professor of Philosophy at Millsaps College, USA and the author of
The Concept of the Spiritual(1988),
Gender Thinking(1992),
Worth Doing(2004), and
Appeal and Attitude(2005).
Preface
Acknowledgements
Introduction
1What Is Historical Meaningfulness?
Toward full history: historical sense
Toward fullest history: historical meaningfulness
Evasions and reductions of history thinking
Historical realism in practical evaluation
2How Is History Real?
Archetypalism and experientialism
How action sharing is real
3How Is History Interesting?
Being interested in history and the historical
Three modes of historical interest
Three openings of historical interest
The most interesting new histories, #1: Natural history
The most interesting nel3-
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