Koselleck, Arendt, and the Anthropology of Historical Experience

Bibliographic Data

ID4496758
AuthorsStefan‐ludwig Hoffmann (0000-0002-3238-5625, Leibniz-Centre for Contemporary History, corresponding author)
Year2010
Volume49
Issue2
Pages212-236
Publication date2010-05-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueHistory and Theory (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0018-2656 • E-ISSN: 1468-2303
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/j.1468-2303.2010.00540.x
OpenAlexW2114929707
LanguageEN
Citations received16

This essay is the first attempt to compare Reinhart Koselleck's Historik with Hannah Arendt's political anthropology and her critique of the modern concept of history. Koselleck is well-known for his work on conceptual history as well as for his theory of historical time(s). It is my contention that these different projects are bound together by Koselleck's Historik, that is, his theory of possible histories. This can be shown through an examination of his writings from Critique and Crisis to his final essays on historical anthropology, most of which have not yet been translated into English. Conversely, Arendt's political theory has in recent years been the subject of numerous interpretations that do not take into account her views about history. By comparing the anthropological categories found in Koselleck's Historik with Arendt's political anthropology, I identify similar intellectual lineages in them (Heidegger, Löwith, Schmitt) as well as shared political sentiments, in particular the anti-totalitarian impulse of the postwar era. More importantly, Koselleck's theory of the preconditions of possible histories and Arendt's theory of the preconditions of the political, I argue, transcend these lineages and sentiments by providing essential categories for the analysis of historical experience

Conceptual history · Epistemology · Historical anthropology · Political anthropology · Political philosophy · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Subject (documents) · Anthropology · Hannah Arendt's Political Philosophy · History · Law · Philosophy · Philosophy, Ethics, and Existentialism · Political Theology and Sovereignty

Tools

Open DOISci-Hub