The Primacy of Method in Historical Research: Philosophy of History and the Perspective of Meaning

How does history relate to the past? According to leading historical theorists, the relation to the past in history is reducible to evidential, psychological, practical and retrospective concerns. In contrast, this volume claims that historical relations to the past are irreducible products of the logical commitments of history as method. Ahlskog argues that the method of history shapes and enables relations to the past in historical research by invoking past perspectives of meaning for rendering reality intelligible. The book provides a much-needed philosophical clarification of key concepts in one of the most fundamental debates within the humanities today.

Jonas Ahlskog is Postdoctoral Researcher in Philosophy and History of Ideas at the Department of Philosophy, Åbo Akademi University, Finland.