Historism is a philosophical and historiographical
theory, founded in 19th-century Germany (as
Historismus) and especially influential in
19th- and 20th-century Europe.
In those times there was not a single natural,
humanitarian or philosophical science that
would not reflect, in one way or another,
the historical type of thought (cf. comparative
historical linguistics etc.).
It pronounces the historicity of humanity
and its binding to tradition.
Historist historiography rejects historical
teleology and bases its explanations of historical
phenomena on sympathy and understanding (see
Hermeneutics) for the events, acting persons,
and historical periods.
The historist approach takes to its extreme
limits the common observation that human institutions
(language, Art, religion, law, State) are
subject to perpetual change.Historism is not
to be confused with historicism, nevertheless
the English habits of using both words are
very similar.
(The term historism is sometimes reserved
to identify the specific current called Historismus
in the tradition of German philosophy and
historiography.)
== Criticism ==
Because of the power held on the social sciences
by logical positivism, historism or historicism
is deemed unpopular.Karl Popper, one of the
most distinguished critics of historicism,
criticized historism, too.
He differentiated between both phenomena as
follows: The term historicism is used in his
influential books The Poverty of Historicism
and The Open Society and Its Enemies to describe
“an approach to the social sciences which
assumes that historical prediction is their
primary aim, and which assumes that this aim
is attainable by discovering the 'rhythms'
or the 'patterns', the 'laws' or the 'trends'
that underlie the evolution of history”.
Popper wrote with reference to Hegel's theory
of history, which he criticized extensively.
By historism on the contrary, he means the
tendency to regard every argument or idea
as completely accounted for by its historical
context, as opposed to assessing it by its
merits.
Historism does not aim for the 'laws' of history,
but premises the individuality of each historical
situation.
On the basis of Popper's definitions, the
historian Stefan Berger proposes as a proper
word usage: I deliberately use the term ‘historism’
(and ‘historist’) rather than ‘historicism’
(and ‘historicist’).
Whereas ‘historism’ (in German, Historismus),
as represented by Leopold von Ranke, can be
seen as an evolutionary, reformist concept
which understands all political order as historically
developed and grown, ‘historicism’ (Historizismus),
as defined and rejected by Karl Popper, is
based on the notion that history develops
according to predetermined laws towards a
particular end.
The English language, by using only one term
for those different concepts, tends to conflate
the two.
Hence I suggest using two separate terms in
analogy to the German language.
== Notable exponents ==
Notable exponents of historism were primarily
the German 19th-century historians Leopold
von Ranke and Johann Gustav Droysen, 20th-century
historian Friedrich Meinecke, and the philosopher
Wilhelm Dilthey.
Dilthey was influenced by Ranke.
The jurists Friedrich Carl von Savigny and
Karl Friedrich Eichhorn were strongly influenced
by the ideas of historism and founded the
German Historical School of Law.
The Italian philosopher and historian Benedetto
Croce and his British colleague Robin George
Collingwood were important European exponents
of historism in the late 19th and early 20th
century.
Collingwood was influenced by Dilthey.Ranke's
arguments can be viewed as an antidote to
the lawlike and quantitative approaches common
in sociology and most other social sciences.The
principle of historism has a universal methodological
significance in Marxism.
The essence of this principle, in brief, is
not to forget the underlying historical connection,
to examine every question from the standpoint
of how the given phenomenon arose in history
and what principal stages this phenomenon
passed through in its development, and, from
the standpoint of its development, to examine
what the given thing has become today.
Georg G. Iggers is one of the most important
critical authors on historism.
His book The German Conception of History:
The National Tradition of Historical Thought
from Herder to the Present, first published
in 1968 (by Wesleyan University Press, Middletown,
Ct.) is a "classic” among critiques of historism.
Another critique is presented by the German
philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, whose essay
Vom Nutzen und Nachteil der Historie für
das Leben (On the Use and Abuse of History
for Life, 1874; see The Untimely Meditations)
denounces “a malignant historical fever”.
Nietzsche contends that the historians of
his times, the historists, damaged the powers
of human life by relegating it to the past
instead of opening it to the future.
For this reason, he calls for a return, beyond
historism, to humanism.
== Contemporaries ==
20th-century German historians promoting some
aspects of historism are Ulrich Muhlack, Thomas
Nipperdey and Jörn Rüsen.
Also the Spanish philosopher José Ortega
y Gasset was influenced by historism.
== See also ==
Heinrich Rickert
Historical school of economics
== Notes ==
== References ==
Georg G. Iggers, The German Conception of
History: The National Tradition of Historical
Thought from Herder to the Present, 2nd rev.
edn., Wesleyan University Press, Middletown,
Ct., 1983, ISBN 0-8195-6080-4.
Stefan Berger, Stefan Berger responds to Ulrich
Muhlack.
In: Bulletin of the German Historical Institute
London, Volume XXIII, No. 1, May 2001, pp.
21–33 (contemporary debate between a historism-critic
and a historism-supporting historian).
Frederick C. Beiser, The German Historicist
Tradition, Oxford University Press, 2011.
Frederick C. Beiser, After Hegel: German Philosophy,
1840-1900, Princeton University Press, 2014.
Wallace, Edwin R. and Gach, John (eds.), History
of Psychiatry and Medical Psychology: With
an Epilogue on Psychiatry and the Mind-Body
Relation, Springer, 2008.
Peter Koslowski (ed.), The Discovery of Historicity
in German Idealism and Historism, Springer,
2006.
