The Experience of Time as Crisis: On Croce's and Benjamin's Concept of History

In the early decades of the twentieth century the experience of time as crisis became the catalyst for a fundamental reorientation in the relationship between historical materialism and idealism, leading to the rejection of simplistic mechanical concepts of historical time. This reorientation represents a turning point in the history of European ideas, clearly evident in the work of two major thinkers of this period, usually associated with opposing political ideologies: the Marxist theorist Walter Benjamin and the liberal philosopher Benedetto Croce. Based on a conceptual framework borrowed partly from Reinhart Koselleck, this article explains how the experience of acute crisis led both thinkers to develop a new understanding of historical time, which shows surprising parallels. Both authors used the reorientation in the relationship between idealism and materialism to criticize positivist approaches to the analysis of historical change and to reject deterministic accounts of the future.     

全球史视野与国家史观念:近代边疆史研究的两个维度

近代边疆研究日益引起学术界广泛关注,既是学术研究内在学理自然发展之结果,也与当代社会各界关注边疆问题的历史性反思有着密切关联。对近代边疆史的研究,既不能割裂其与古代边疆史的延续性,也不能拘泥于断代史的话语诠释;既不能忽略边疆问题的殊相,也不要陷入地方史的思维;既要有纵向的深入思考,也要有横向的宽广视野。须从整体思维出发,在全球史视野下审视近代中国边疆问题与全球化进程中国际秩序重构的复杂关系,以国家史观念从全局上把握近代边疆问题与中国国家建设之间密切不可分割的互动关系。     

Tannery and Duhem on the Concept of a System in the History of Philosophy and History of Science

ABSTRACT

This article examines John Toland’s Reasons for Naturalizing the Jews (1714) by placing it alongside other elements of his engagement with Jewish history, Mosaic principles and wider “Hebraica” – specifically, an appendix to his Nazarenus (1718) and his Origines Judaicae (1709). Although Toland’s case for Jewish naturalization shows the strong influence of Locke’s case for political and religious toleration, and also of a general “mercantilism”, it is argued that one of its main characteristics is a philosophical naturalism, shown in its treatment of the human species as a whole. Furthermore, it is also argued that this same naturalism is evident throughout Toland’s engagement with Jewish history and Mosaic thought. Accordingly, when we “fold” these works into each other, we find each enhancing our understanding of the others – not just as examples of Toland’s treatment of “Jewish affairs”, but also as illustrations of a consistent conceptual materialism. To emphasize this, the article concludes by suggesting that the figure of Rabbi Simone Luzzatto, author of a 1638 plea for tolerance, provides an important clue in understanding the links between Toland’s political injunctions and the philosophical foundation on which they are built.     

“历史”释义

本文通过对于汉字“历”和“史”,汉字词组“历史”之字源、词源,及其意义之演变的考订,对“历史”的意义作了新的诠释。“历”字之初形初义,以足行经过禾间,表示有序有度的时间经过;“史”字之初形初义,以手持猎具表示事情。“历史”一词的初义,是历代史书;近代以来,发展出学问、教学科目、过去了的事情之过程等诸种意义。汉字“历史”一词,可以规范成为关于历史和历史学的恰切的文字表述,其所表达的时间、事情、空间和人的意义,已经大体上涵盖了历史学的基本要素,这就为史学史和史学思想的发展奠定了坚实的语言文字基础,也包藏着建立汉字系统的历史学理论之深厚的可能性。     

The Sense of History: On the Political Implications of Karl Löwith's Concept of Secularization

Written during the period of his emigration to the United States, during and just after World War II, the originality of Karl Löwith's book Meaning in History lies in its resolute critique of all forms of philosophy of history. This critique is based on the now famous idea that modern philosophies of history have only extended and deepened an illusion fabricated by a long tradition of Christian historical reflection: the illusion that history itself has an intrinsic goal. This modern extension and deepening of the chimera propagated by Christian historical reflection is what Löwith terms "secularization." Drawing on the arguments in Meaning in History as well as those proposed in other contemporaneous and earlier writings, including Löwith's heretofore unpublished correspondence with Leo Strauss, this article attempts to set in relief the frequently neglected, yet eminently political implications of Löwith"s idea of secularization. Among the problems implicitly considered in relation to the theory of secularization in Meaning in History is a theme frequently addressed in earlier writings: the motives that led German intellectuals like Friedrich Gogarten, Martin Heidegger, and Carl Schmitt to adhere to the Nazi movement.     

李大钊对“历史”概念的探讨

1924年,商务印书馆出版的李大钊著的《史学要论》,标志着李大钊的史学思想已经走向成熟。在此书中,李大钊提出了历史的完整的定义。他的这个定义是有两个形成的过程的。他曾经思考过诸多国内外历史学者对于历史的定义,但在接受了唯物史观以后,他才真正明确了历史的概念。他对历史的定义,是他的史学思想中很有价值的重要内容。