Historical concepts

The leading historical concepts are not just simple tools of knowledge but they are factors of historical processes. The concepts are complex and changeable combinations of analytical and normative efforts, and when they are connected within specific discourses they tend to be active. The paper shows how semantic of the hegemonic concepts of any age testifies what was imposed as desirable meaning of life. It reveals in what ways one reduced complexity of the past that passed and passed future, and which historical concepts were used as a weapon of war and oppression or which concepts were levers of solidarity and peace. Concepts are conditions of explanations in social sciences, and they are also means of emancipation. Conceptual history, however, provides necessary context for assessment of their role. Conceptual history has to have its own reflexivity, while any usage of historical terms has its own epistemological limits and its own overtaking of the concepts. In this context, the paper pays special attention to modern helplessness of the concept of anti-capitalism. One could realize that contemporary idea of a wishful future and a clear distinction between good and bad pasts are important requirements in order to control present situation in capitalism

Capitalism · Conceptual framework · Context (archaeology) · Emancipation · Epistemology · Hegemony · Meaning (existential) · Normative · Oppression · Political science · Politics · Reflexivity · Social science · Sociology · Solidarity · History · Law · Philosophy · Political Economy and Marxism

• Introduction

  Open Access•Ernst Müller•Contributions to the History of…•2011

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