Theories and Narratives : Reflections on the Philosophy on History

ISBN-13: 9780745612010 / Angielski / Miękka / 1995 / 264 str.

Alex Callinicos

Opis

In this book Callinicos explores the relationship between social theory and historical writing drawing on a wide range of theories and theorists in an attempt to establish the contribution that theory can make to understanding the past.

Recenzje

′Callinicos′s well read both in recent philosophy of history and in recent postmodern theory, and engages with both of these in a clear and interesting way.′ Australian Journal of Philosophy

′An outstanding piece of committed scholarship, impressive in its intellectual scope, rational argumentation and clarity of exposition.′ Radical Philosophy

′Few social and political theorists in recent years can match the combination of quality and quantity in the writings of Alex Callinicos. This book offers incisive and lucid discussions in his best manner of the views on history of a range of contemporary thinkers from Francis Fukuyama to Hayden White and Robert Brenner.′ Political Studies

Spis treści

Introduction.

Part 1. Sympathy for the Devil?.

Francis Fukuyama and the End of History.

1.1. Fukuyama and the Left.

1.2. Kojeve: From Hegel to Stalin.

1.3. Fukuyama: From Spengler to Reagan.

1.4. History and Reason.

Part 2. History as Narrative.

2.1. The Claims of Narrative.

2.2. The Specificity of Modern Historical Discourse.

2.3. Facing the Facts.

2.4. Theory and Interpretation.

Part 3. History as Theory.

3.1. What is a Theory of History?.

3.2. Marx or Weber?.

3.3. Capitalism and Abstraction.

Part 4. History as Progress.

4.1. Meaning in History.

4.2. The Dialectics of Progress.

4.3. The Rise of the West.

4.4. Identity and Emancipation.

Conclusion.

Notes.

Index.

O autorze

Alex Callinicos is Professor of Politics at the University of York.

Blurb

Theories and Narratives explores the relationship between social theory and historical writing. Its aim is to establish the contribution that theory can make to understanding the past.

Pursuing this objective, Alex Callinicos critically confronts a number of leading attempts to reconceptualize the meaning of history, including Francis Fukuyama′s rehabilitation of Hegel′s philosophy of history and the postmodernist efforts of Hayden White and others to deny the existence of a past independent of our representations of it. In these cases philosophical arguments are pursued in tandem with discussions of historical interpretations of, respectively, Stalinism and the Holocaust. Leading theories of history – Marx′s and Weber′s – are then critically compared in the context of the work of recent writers such as Michael Mann, W. G. Runciman and Robert Brenner.

Finally, the politics of historical theory is explored in a discussion of Marxism′s claims to be a universal theory of human progress. Swimming against the tide of contemporary fashion, Theories and Narratives seeks to rebut the claim made by many postmodernists that Marxism is inherently Eurocentric in both its conceptual structures and political practice. Marx′s project of human emancipation, it concludes, still defines our political horizons.