Theory & History of HistoriographyCroce, Benedetto
Philosophy
Theory & History of Historiography
Croce, Benedetto
Historiography
there is the sense of and striving for a better method, while there
is adherence to old methods in all the other fields. The history of
historiography is the history of historical thought; and here it is
impossible to distinguish theory of history from history.
Another exclusion which Fueter declares that he has made is that of
the _philosophy of history._ He does not give the reason for this, but
allows it to be understood, for he evidently holds that philosophies of
history do not possess a purely scientific character and are lacking
in truth. But not only are what are called 'philosophies of history'
erroneous conceptions of history, but so also are the naturalistic or
deterministic conceptions opposed to them, and all the various forms of
pseudo-history which have been described above, philological history,
poetical history, rhetorical history. I do not find that he has
excluded these from his history, any more than he has really excluded
the theological and transcendental conception of history (philosophy
of history); indeed, he constantly refers to it. Justice and logic
would insist upon all or none being excluded--all really excluded,
and not merely in words. But to exclude all of them, it may be said,
would be anything but intelligent, because how could the history of
history ever be told in such a void? What is this history but the
struggle of scientific historiography against inadequate scientific
formulas? Certainly the former is the protagonist, but how could a
drama be presented with a protagonist lacking antagonists? And even
if historical philology be not considered directly, but referred back
to philology, if poetical history be referred back to literature,
rhetorical or practical to social and political history, it would
nevertheless be necessary always to take account of the conversion that
often occurs of those various mental constructions into assertions
of reality, taken in exchange for and given the value of true and
proper histories. In this sense they become in turn _deterministic_
or _transcendental_ conceptions of history, and both of them logical
or illogical representations of all the others, and end by becoming
equivalent to one another dialectically, and are always before the
eyes of the historian, because the perpetual condition and the
perpetual sign of the progress of historical thought reside in their
movement, which passes from transcendency or false immanence to pure
immanence, to return to them and enter into a more profound conception
of immanency. To exclude philosophies of history from the history of
historiography does not, therefore, seem to me to be justifiable,
for the same reason as it seems to be unjustifiable to exclude from
it historiographical theories, which are the consciousness that
historiography acquires of itself: owing to their homogeneity, I say,
owing indeed to their identity with history, of which they do not form
accidental ingredients or material elements, but constitute the very
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