jörn rüsen - workshop

What is Meta-History?

Jörn Rüsen:

What is the Meta-History?

Approaching a Comprehensive Theory of Historical Studies

The title of my paper already gives an answer to the question what meta-history is: meta-

history is the theory of historical studies. But what does theory mean and what historical

studies? Theory is a form of cognition and knowledge, characterized by generalizing

statements, and therefore it is an abstraction from concrete, single and unique phenomena. We

find it in the knowledge of everyday-life and in all academic disciplines.

Here, in the academic disciplines, it is a matter of controversy, whether all disciplines really

have theoretical elements and use theories. The dominant philosophy of history in the second

half of the 19th century e.g. (Windelband, Rickert, Dilthey) made a sharp distinction between

individualizing and generalizing modes of thought and used this distinction to illuminate the

specific nature of the humanities, mainly all disciplines which are dealing with history.

I think that the difference between theoretical and a- or non-theoretical disciplines or sciences

(in the broader meaning of the word science) is completely misleading. Why? Even in those

disciplines like historical studies, where abstract theories are not the main purpose of their

cognitive work, we will find generalizing statements as necessary elements for describing and

explaining the events of the past and their temporal order. Max Weber illuminated these

theoretical elements as ideal types, which are necessary to conceptualize the individuality of

historical phenomena by means of a certain kind of theorizing.

But the theoretical status of meta-history is different. It has a reflective nature; it is a theory

about the cognitive forms and procedures of historical thinking. If one concedes that historical

thinking uses theoretical elements, meta-history even is a theory about theory. That exactly is

indicated by the formulation "meta".

Thus meta-history reflects history, - history not as something which happened in the past, but

as a way of dealing with the past, of making sense of experiencing it for the purpose of

orienting the people of the present in the temporal dimension of their lives.

Meta-history reflects the mental procedures and structures of making sense of the experience

of the past. It draws a mental or intellectual map of historical consciousness. This reflection

and mapping does not refer to all dimensions and activities of historical consciousness, but

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concentrates on its specific manifestation in historical studies as an institutionalized form of

historical thinking. In the non-English speaking world this institutionalized form is called

'science'. So meta-history is a space for the discourse on the question whether history is a

science or not. If it is a science, what then is its distinctive nature when comparing it with

other academic disciplines, mainly the natural sciences?

With this concentration on the ' scientific' character of historical thinking meta-history has got

a place in the work of the professional historians, mainly when explaining the rules of

historical method. This has led to a narrowing of the scope of understanding what historical

thinking is about. Without a more general and fundamental insight into the mental and

intellectual work of historical consciousness there is no clear idea of what its activities in the

professional form of an academic discipline actually are. This argument indicates my way of

conceptualizing meta-history. It reflects all those mental elements and principles which

constitute historical thinking. So it only considers 'thinking' (or to be more precise: it inquires

into sense-making, since this includes the work of a literary forming, which indeed refers less

to cognitive elements than to esthetic ones). It addresses its context in the social life of the

people and all social, political and economic conditions, under which history is performed in

human life; but this applies only to a performance in respect to its importance for thinking,

cognition, and sense-formation. Meta-history starts its reflective work with the fundamental

and general question: "what makes sense in historical thinking?"

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In order to find an answer to this question for the basic category of historical sense, it is useful

to distinguish single elements of sense generation in general and applying them to the special

field of historical consciousness.

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Sense making is a dynamic procedure of the human mind, which can be described in an

abstract way as a process which leads from perception and experience to interpretation,

which produces knowledge, and from interpretation to orientation, which uses knowledge for

understanding the problems of human life, and, finally, from orientation to motivation, which

gives the human will a direction, a purpose and an aim.

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This complex interrelationship of basic principles of human sense generation can be picked up

and transformed into a similar abstract scheme of basic principles and activities of historical

consciousness. This scheme refers to the special form of historical thinking, which is typical

for its modern academic character. It should express the idea of historical thinking as a

process of cognition, which starts from a question and ends in an answer. Question and

answer can be related to the social and cultural context, within which the process of cognition

takes place and which has an impact on it. At the same time the step from this context to the

specific procedures of historical research and of history writing could be marked.

So the beginning of meta-history should be a reflection on the beginning of the activities of

the human mind in respect to the challenge of specific mental operations: I mean the

operations which can only find an answer by referring to the perception and experience of the

human past in a cognitive manner.

This challenge can be identified as needs for orientation in the temporal dimension of human

life. In every human life form these needs are permanently produced by the experiences of

temporal changes, to which the affected people have to adjust their lives. In the specific view

on historical studies they acquire the form of interests, which demand cognition

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(Erkenntnisinteressen). History as 'science' is the result of a fundamental transformation of

needs for orientation into interests for cognition.

These needs and interests give the human mind the direction towards the past, which brings

the past into a perspective, within which it receives meaning and becomes a matter of

understanding. The past in itself is not history; it acquires this character within a perspective,

which relates it to the present and to the future perspective of human life. Here is the place

where fundamental questions, what history in general is about, have to be discussed.

Philosophy of history becomes visible as an integral part of the work of the professional

historians. That does not mean they have to turn into a philosophers as such; but that their

work can't be understood without an impact of philosophical presuppositions concerning the

meaning of the past as history. General periodizations covering the whole realm of historical

experience are here at stake as well.

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But not only general philosophical questions or comprehensive periodizations fall into this

realm of meta-history. In the specific work of professional historians concepts of

interpretation play an enormous role. They stem from the leading questions they want to

answer. A well known example is the theory of modernization or –to say it in a more updated

way– modernizations in modern history. These concepts have their own logical form, namely

that of a more or less articulated hypothesis. 'Science' endows concepts of interpretation with

a theoretical form, in which they function by opening the realm of historical experience

according to the research guiding questions. It is them which define what constitutes a

historical source. Many history teachers in school and university tell their students that proper

historical thinking starts with the sources. But what is a source? In general: all relicts from the

past, everything which can give information of what, when, where, and why happened in the

past. But historical thinking has to select the relevant sources for the required information; for

this selection a filter is necessary and a criterion, which may decide upon what is relevant and

important and what is not. This filter and this criterion have a theoretical status in relation to

the information furnished by the sources.

Concepts of interpretation and more or less theoretically explicated perspectives are only

insofar useful as they disclose relevant source material, which can be used to get the

information about the past to answer the question at the beginning of the cognition-process.

Historical perspectives are only meaningful, if they become - so to speak -filled with

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evidence. Historical thinking without evidence of what happened in the past is senseless.

Historical sense and meaning demand evidence as a necessary condition for the possibility of

any form of historical knowledge. Therefore the approach to evidence and its content of

information about the past is a necessary principle and procedure of historical thinking. It has

its own logic. It is the logic of making statements plausible by referring to so-called facts.

These facts are not simply given, they don´t lie around in the open, but they have to be

brought about by dealing with all the materials in which the past is still present.

Here is the place in the

mental map of historical thinking where the essence of its modern ' scientific' character is

located: the methodical rules of historical research. From their very beginning as an academic

discipline till today historical studies are characterized as an academic discipline and

distinguished as professional. From all other ways of doing history it differs by its ability to

gain solid historical knowledge by research. Research is a way of dealing with the evidence of

the past. It brings about new knowledge of what happened, and when and where and why it

did so. Research endows this knowledge with a certain reliability, namely that of being based

on evidence.

This knowledge always has its specific – namely historical – form. It can only be sufficiently

analyzed when it is shaped according to this specific form usually called historiography. This

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form has its specific logic as well, which is fundamentally different from the logic of

theoretical conceptualization and empirical research. It is the narrative logic of telling a story.

The difference and the interrelationship between gaining knowledge by research and

presenting it in a historiographical form is a highly controversial issue of meta-history.

Nobody can deny that two principles exist -method and representation - but since both govern

clearly different logics, it is anything but clear how they are synthesized on the logical basis

of historical thinking. Many theoretists today think that interpretation is nothing but re-

presentation. Thus they radically deny the 'scientific' character of historical studies and

position historical thinking only in a place in literature. On the other hand professional

historians insist on rational procedures of gaining solid knowledge out of the sources and

deny any logical supremacy of narration over all single procedures.

It is the task of meta-history today to recognize these contradictions and to show that the

narrative structure of historical knowledge does not oppose the rationality of methodical

research. Neither does it exclude elements of rational argumentation from historical

presentation.

The reconstruction of the main principles of historical sense generation would be incomplete

if the function of historiographically presented historical knowledge were omitted. It is the

function which decides whether the thought-provoking needs for orientation - or more

specifically: interests in historical knowledge - are fulfilled or not. Then the results of the

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process of generating meaning out of the experience of the past may come to an end (and

immediately start again with new questions). As all other constitutive principles that one of

the function of historical knowledge in practical life has its own specific logic. It is the logic

of serving practical life by cultural orientation. It makes historical knowledge effective.

Regarding the rational status of historical studies, this logic furnishes historical knowledge

with elements of 'practical truth'. This truth criterion can be clearly (in respect to its logic)

distinguished from the empirical and theoretical truth of research as well as from the criteria

of a convincing re-presentation.

Here the issue of identity plays an important role. Without a historical reference to the past the

question who we are, to whom we belong and who the others are, with whom we have to live

together cannot be answered. Every piece of historical knowledge contributes to this answer.

Very often this does not occur directly, but only mediated, and more or less disconnected

from identity politics.

Looking at the function of historical thinking in its cultural context and realizing the close

connection between functions and needs, we become aware that the cognitive dimension of

historical thinking is fundamentally related to non-cognitive ones, - mainly (but not

exclusively) to a political one (an esthetic dimension is already apparent in the principle of

historiographical forming). The motivational forces of the human mind can't be overlooked

when focussing on the roots of historical thinking and its role in practical life. This makes

politics constitutive for historical cognition (but only as one factor besides others)..

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What now is the specific role of academic or ' scientific' argumentation in this field of

practical life? It is not at all separated from it, but is rooted in it and needed by it. Its necessity

is based on a fundamental need for the reliability of historical knowledge in human life.

Historical studies with its emphasis on evidence and its explanatory interpretation plays an

important role in giving reasons and in criticizing the claim for plausibility in historical

presentations. -

It is the advantage of this concept of meta-history to emphasize the interrelationship between

the cognitive work of the professional historians and the role history plays in practical life.

We can't understand the specific logic of historical cognition without knowing how it is

rooted in and refers to cultural life. The usual distinction between serving life purposes

(Lebensdienlichkeit) and claims for rationality and even objectivity is completely misleading.

We come much closer to the reality of doing history when we consider their mutual

dependence, and at the same time those areas of historical thinking where not primarily

practical purposes are pursued. Here the commitment to empirical and theoretical evidence

may play the foremost role.

Till now my argumentation has emphasized different logics as necessary factors of historical

thinking. Each of the five enumerated principles have a different logic: each is necessary, and

all five together are sufficient for reconstructing and explaining what constitutes historical

thinking as a mental activity with special respect to historical studies. Therefore I think that

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my concept of meta-history is comprehensive indeed. It can claim for a systemic order

covering the issue of historical thinking in all its relevant dimensions.

The sequence of these logics might give a misleading impression, since from the very

beginning they are interrelated, but without giving them this sequential order, the internal

(even logical) dynamics in historical thinking would not have become visible.

But how are these logics interrelated? This question cannot be answered without a systematic

reconstruction of the discursive form of historical thinking and their specific logic of

communication. In a very schematic way these forms of communication can be described as

dominating a section in the space where the different principles of historical sense generation

are mediated.:

1. Needs for orientation and concept of historical understanding are systematically interrelated

in a discourse of symbolization, where ' history' is defined as a cultural unit in human life

orientation.

2. Concepts of historical understanding and rules for treating the sources are systematically

mediated by a strategy of cognition. Here the approach to evidence in historical perspective is

the dominating issue.

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3. Rules for treating the sources in a historical perspective and forms of representation are

mediated by a strategy of esthetics. It is this strategy which enables empirical knowledge

about the human past to the historiographical representation of the past.

4. Forms of representation and functions of orientation are mediated by a strategy of rhetoric.

With this strategy the historiographically represented past can play a role in the historical

culture of the present.

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5. Functions of orientation and needs for orientation are mediated by a discourse of memory

politics and identity formation in practical life. Here the role of historical knowledge in

practical life is at stake.

In these five views at the discursive and communicative dynamics of historical thinking

become visible. But the proper understanding of this dynamics would be impossible if the role

of human subjectivity in making sense of history did not undergo some differentiation

concerning its dimensions. Today everybody is convinced that it is the human mind which

brings about the meaning of history. Sense generation is mainly, if not exclusively, seen as a

cultural issue of the presence referring to the past. Thus by the mental creativity of historically

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minded people history is completely determined. This determination can be called

constructivism. Its essence holds that history is nothing but a construction of the past brought

about in the present. The past has no voice of its own in the sense generating process of

historical thinking. It is nothing but a soundboard for the tunes that people of today want to

hear in order to place themselves into the course of time.

Is this true? Is the past really voiceless? Using the scheme of historical sense generation we

can easily show that matters are much more complicated. At least three different dimensions

of pursuing the process of historical sense generation can be distinguished.

1. The first one is the level where the dominance of human subjectivity is evident. It is the

level of (re-)construction. The whole process of conceptualizing historical perspectives, of

working with the sources and of forming historical knowledge historiographically is governed

by the intellectual capacities of the historians.

2. But what about the influence of the context, within which these capacities were used? What

about important criteria and modes of discourse and even the whole culture of their terms of

doing history? Arent´t they already pregiven in the cultural life, of which the historians

themselves are a part of? And is the past not already present in these circumstances and

conditions of the historical thinking of the present? In order to make this evident it is useful to

distinguish a level of historical sense generation where the effectivity of its conditions and

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circumstances is dominating. I would like to call it the level of practical life or of functioning

historical sense generation. Here the historians as constructors of historical meaning

themselves are constructed; they are offspring 'children of their time'.

3. Both levels are interrelated, and it is useful to distinguish another level of its own,

artificially separated from the two others, where this interrelationship takes place. It is the

level of pragmatism where the constructors interfere in those processes where the constructing

of the constructors takes place. The historians are activists of historical culture on the level of

theoretical reflection; yet, on the level of pragmatic reconstruction they are still actors, but

no longer the masters of what takes place here in the public and private life. They are the

actors who rewrite their pregiven roles on the stage of history without being able to rewrite

the whole screenplay. And they have no chance or possibility of changing or stepping out of

it.

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This brings me to the last point of my concept of meta-history. When we look at the three

different dimensions in which historical sense generation takes place, we know that their

distinction is artificial, that they are three angles of one comprehensive process. How can we

characterize their systemic interrelatedness and internal unity? It is the unity of the creative

process of historical sense generation, that is when historians do their work in the context of

the historical culture of their time. Sense takes place before and beyond it is noticed and

reflected and handled by the historians. They execute it in their practical work, and by doing

so it becomes a matter of their creativity, but, nevertheless, at the same time they remain but

performers (executors) of sense.

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Doing and be done coincide

in the absolute presence of sense during the actual performance and practise of historical

thinking. Doing history in the human mind is a part of history as the temporal execution of

human life. This very history is different from the history the historians address, research and

re-present. It is so–to-speak history in and as presence. Only afterwards it can be reflected in

its complicated temporal dimension. As such this can't be thought because thinking already

raises it to the status of the subject matter of thinking. It is no longer left in the status of its

actualperformance and action, of its doing and being done. It is un-pre-thinkable. In this

fascinating ontological status of unpre-thinkability it is a real basis, the ground for any

historical sense-generating by historical thinking.

This is an epistemological argument, which transgresses the cognition process, and even the

traditional philosophy of history (in both forms: concerning what happened in the past and

what afterwards is said about and understood by it). Nevertheless, here we have the logical

consequence of an analysis of the the historians´ intellectual work of when they want to come

to terms with the past in order to serve the cultural orientation of the presence for the sake of

the future. Of course, I am full aware that by speaking about this unprethinkability I am, at the

same time, approaching the end of thinking about historical thinking, of meta-history.

Nonetheless, I have tried my best to cope with what has been left to us.

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jörn rüsen - workshop

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