Overview

What makes historical writing distinctive? In Representation, Franklin Rudolf Ankersmit-the preeminent figure in the philosophy of history today-offers a deeply original way of understanding the practice of historical writing and a powerful vindication of history as an empirical discipline. Based on a new reading of the philosophy of G. W. Leibniz, Ankersmit constructs a rigorous framework for understanding the nature of historical argument. Representation argues that while previous states of affairs have left evidence that can be used to formulate true statements, the past itself is irretrievably lost. A condition of historical writing is that the past as such does not exist. Historical texts are best understood as complex signs that mutually criticize one another to compose a historical reality fundamentally distinct from common-sense notions of the past. Representation casts an entirely new light on fundamental concepts such as historical truth, historical debate, and historical rationality. Cogent, forceful, and provocative, this book is the most ambitious work in the philosophy of history in many years.

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9780231215916

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Representation offers a subtle account of the affinities between Leibnizian philosophy and the discipline of history. Frank Ankersmit is the most significant philosopher of history of the last forty years, and Representation his most thought-provoking work. From what might seem an unlikely quarter, and quite surprisingly, Ankersmit ends up laying down a defense of academic historiography from its enemies, those who deny that it can ever be an empirical science. -- Allan Megill, author of <i>Historical Knowledge, Historical Error: A Contemporary Guide to Practice</i>

Representation offers a subtle account of the affinities between Leibnizian philosophy and the discipline of history. Frank Ankersmit is the most significant philosopher of history of the last forty years, and Representation his most thought-provoking work. From what might seem an unlikely quarter, and quite surprisingly, Ankersmit ends up laying down a defense of academic historiography from its enemies, those who deny that it can ever be an empirical science. -- Allan Megill, author of <i>Historical Knowledge, Historical Error: A Contemporary Guide to Practice</i> By way of a careful and highly original reading of Leibniz, Ankersmit demonstrates that the present non-existence of the past is (contrary to much historical theorizing of the past half-century) no barrier to rendering true statements about pasts in the form of history. This masterful book also shows that philosophers of history and academic historians have nothing to fear and a great deal to learn from each other’s practices. -- Daniel Woolf, Queen’s University, Canada

Representation offers a subtle account of the affinities between Leibnizian philosophy and the discipline of history. Frank Ankersmit is the most significant philosopher of history of the last forty years, and Representation his most thought-provoking work. From what might seem an unlikely quarter, and quite surprisingly, Ankersmit ends up laying down a defense of academic historiography from its enemies, those who deny that it can ever be an empirical science. -- Allan Megill, author of <i>Historical Knowledge, Historical Error: A Contemporary Guide to Practice</i> By way of a careful and highly original reading of Leibniz, Ankersmit demonstrates that the present nonexistence of the past is (contrary to much historical theorizing of the past half-century) no barrier to rendering true statements about pasts in the form of history. This masterful book also shows that philosophers of history and academic historians have nothing to fear and a great deal to learn from each other’s practices. -- Daniel Woolf, Queen’s University, Canada

Author Information

Franklin Rudolf Ankersmit is professor emeritus of intellectual history and historical theory at the University of Groningen. The author of numerous books, he founded the Journal of the Philosophy of History.

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