Full history : a philosophy of shared action / by Steven G. Smith.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Smith, Steven G., author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

History--Philosophy.

History.

Social history--Philosophy.

Social history.

Physical Description:

x, 245 pages ; ǂc 25 cm

Place of Publication:

London ; New York : Bloomsbury Academic, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing, 2016.

Summary:

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 of Full History Smith 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 History seeks 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.

Contents:

1 What Is "Historical Meaningfulness? 15

Towards full history: Historical sense 17

Towards fullest history: Historical meaningfulness 21

Evasions and reductions of history thinking 43

Historical realism in practical evaluation 46

2 How Is History Real? 49

Archetypal ism and experientialism 50

How action sharing is real 55

3 How Is History Interesting? 67

Being interested in 'History' and the historical 67

'Three modes of historical interest 73

Three openings of historical interest 75

The most interesting new histories, #1: The new natural history 78

The most interesting new histories, #2: Feminist history 84

The most interesting new histories, #3: Sports history 86

4 How Does History Matter? 91

Historical importance 91

Totalizing or chaotic: Sartrean and Foucauldian views of historical mattering 100

Theses on historical importance 108

5 How Is History Understandable? 113

Historical insight and historical judgement 113

The practical continuum as spiritual 113

The game model of the practical continuum 123

Is there such a thing as good historical judgement? 130

The classic historical judgement of Jeremiah 135

The modern historical judgement of Hannah Arendt 140

6 How Can History Be Made? 147

The possibility of 'making history 148

The movement ideal 155

The problem of 'historical injustice' 161

The problem of totalizing 164

Four modes of history making 166

The universal history maker 173

7 How Can History Have an Aim? 177

Three historical goals: Utopia, victory, and salvation 180

The best world and bad outcomes 189

Three themes of historical fulfilment: Freedom, solidarity, and redemption 196

History as sacred 202.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Other Format:

Online version: Smith, Steven G., author. Full history.

ISBN:

9781474260329

1474260322

OCLC:

947269884