Futures Past: On the Semantics of Historical TimeModernity in the late eighteenth century transformed all domains of European life -intellectual, industrial, and social. Not least affected was the experience of time itself: ever-accelerating change left people with briefer intervals of time in which to gather new experiences and adapt. In this provocative and erudite book Reinhart Koselleck, a distinguished philosopher of history, explores the concept of historical time by posing the question: what kind of experience is opened up by the emergence of modernity? Relying on an extraordinary array of witnesses and texts from politicians, philosophers, theologians, and poets to Renaissance paintings and the dreams of German citizens during the Third Reich, Koselleck shows that, with the advent of modernity, the past and the future became 'relocated' in relation to each other.The promises of modernity -freedom, progress, infinite human improvement -produced a world accelerating toward an unknown and unknowable future within which awaited the possibility of achieving utopian fulfillment. History, Koselleck asserts, emerged in this crucial moment as a new temporality providing distinctly new ways of assimilating experience. In the present context of globalization and its resulting crises, the modern world once again faces a crisis in aligning the experience of past and present. To realize that each present was once an imagined future may help us once again place ourselves within a temporality organized by human thought and humane ends as much as by the contingencies of uncontrolled events. |
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acceleration according appeared Archenholtz Aristotle Augustine Barbarian became become Begriffsgeschichte chance Chladenius Christian chronological civil conceived concept consciousness constitutional contemporary contrast counterconcepts course deduced Deutsches Wörterbuch developed diachronic doctrine domain dreams eighteenth century emerged empirical Encyclopédie Enlightenment epistemological epoch example experiential expression fashion formulated French Revolution Friedrich Schlegel future German Geschichte Geschichtliche Grundbegriffe Heathen Hegel Hellene historian Holy Roman Empire horizon of expectation human ical interpretation Kant Koselleck language Leibniz Leipzig linguistic long-term longer Lorenz von Stein Marx meaning Mensch Menschheit methodological modern movement Munich nature negation neue Zeit neueste Neuzeit one’s Otto Brunner past period perspective philosophy political possible present prognosis progress Prussian question reality Reformation relation remained semantic singularity social history sources space of experience specific Stände Stein structure Stuttgart temporal theological theoretical theory Thucydides tion topos torical tory transformation Übermensch Untermensch usage word