Evidence and Meaning

Jörn Rüsen is Professor Emeritus of General History and Historical Culture at Witten/Herdecke University. He has also taught at the Universities of Berlin, Bochum and Bielefeld and was Director of the Institute for Advanced Study at Essen. His books and articles have been translated into twenty different languages. Dr. Rüsen is the Founding Editor of the Berghahn Books series Making Sense of History.

“The English translation of Jörn Rüsen’s Historik is a major event in the global community of practitioners of the philosophy, methodology, logic or, broadly speaking, theory of history. Now ideas of universal value speak the universal koine…it is hard to find in all of academia a more suitable book for introducing in an orderly manner the metatheoretical results of 150 years of debates on the nature of history.” • Journal of the Philosophy of History“This book is the late aggregate of numerous ground-breaking texts on the theory of history that Rüsen has published since the end of the 1960s. Rüsen has, in this book, pooled and consolidated many approaches to thinking about the theory of history… Reading and discussing Rüsen’s book… could be, for all history teacher students, one leg in their journeys to becoming routined teachers and something that they will gratefully remember after many years of professional practice.” • Public History Weekly“Rüsen succeeds overall to fulfill the claim of a comprehensive fundamental synthesis. The openness and time-bound nature of a work should be understood as an invitation to develop further the theory of historiography. Rüsen himself has offered, and not only with this book, an important contribution.” • H-Soz-Kult

• PrefaceIntroductionChapter 1. What is Metahistory?Chapter 2. The Foundation of Historical ThinkingHow Does History come into the World?The Elemental Forms in the Forming of Historical MeaningAn Aside: Contingency and FreedomExperiencing Crisis and the Forming of Historical Meaning: A TypologyChapter 3. History as Academic DisciplineHistorical Meaning and Academic StudyMethod and TruthThe Criteria for Truth in Historical ThinkingAcademia: Intercultural Validity or Culturally Specific Relativity?Disciplinary Matrix I: The Five Factor SystemDisciplinary Matrix II: The Schema of Five PracticesDisciplinary Matrix III: The Three Levels of Forming Historical MeaningChapter 4. A Systematic Approach: Categories, Theories, ConceptsWhat is the Issue?‘History’ as Concept of Meaning: A Look at Content and FormTeleology and ReconstructionA Problem Unresolved: The Natural WorldMeans of Access I: The Categorical Dimensions of the HistoricalMeans of Access II: The Realm of Experience RevealedMeans of Access III: The Realm of Interpretation RevealedMeans of Access IV: The Realm of Orientation RevealedInterpretation in Context: Historical TheoriesComprehending the Matter: Historical ConceptsWhat is Historical Explanation?Chapter 5. Methodology: The Rules of the Historical MethodThe Methodological Character of Historical KnowledgeThe Unity of the Historical MethodHeuristricsCriticismInterpretationFrom Interpretation to RepresentationChapter 6. Topics: How We Write HistoryThe Waywardness of WritingImagination, Fiction, ExperienceOrders of Historiographical Representation: The Range of PossibilitiesTypology of Historical Narrative I: Droysen, Nietzsche, WhiteTypology of Historical Narrative II: Classifying the Formation of Historical Meaning into Four TypesTypology of Historical Narrative III: Meaning and RationalityChapter 7. The Basis of Historical CultureHistorical Culture as Societal PracticeHistorical Consciousness and MemoryFive Dimensions of Historical CultureOrientation and Criticism: The Purpose of Historical StudiesThe Role of Value FreedomChapter 8. Practical History: Learning, Understanding, HumanityThe Theoretical Foundation of History DidacticsStandards of Historical Judgement: Understanding and MoralityPolitics of Memory and Historical IdentityOvercoming Ethnocentrism through Historical HumanismFinal Reflections: Finding Reason Between Meaning and MeaninglessnessMeaning and MeaninglessnessOnce Again: The Limitations of ScienceBibliographyIndex