Introduction: The Posterizing Impulse in Philosophy of History

Abstract

Why do philosophy of history books so easily end up on the scrap heap of history?1 Why does nobody anymore read Raymond Martin’s The Past Within Us (1989), despite this little book offering a stimulating correction to the tendency, not uncommon in the field, of privileging conceptual reflection over empirical analysis? Why is Henri-Irénée Marrou’s “treatise on the virtues of the historian,” published in 1954 as De la connaissance historique, almost entirely forgotten, notwithstanding the “virtue turn” that is manifesting itself throughout the humanities and social sciences? Or why is Hanno Kesting’s Geschichtsphilosophie und Weltbürgerkrieg (1959) collecting dust on library shelves, despite the fact that its analysis of historical narratives underpinning the Cold War, the project of European integration, and Third World development policies aligns well with a currently thriving type of intellectual history? It is hard to generalize about a field as heterogenous as the philosophy of history. One thing, however, is certain: like many other humanities scholars, philosophers of history often feel more inclined to dissociate themselves from