Which past? Whose transcendental presupposition?

Seth, Sanjay. 2008. Which past? Whose transcendental presupposition? Postcolonial Studies, 11(2), pp. 215-226. ISSN 1368-8790 [Article]

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Abstract or Description

This paper starts from the presumption that historiography is not the objective retelling of a self-evident object?'the past'?but is rather a 'code', one that constitutes its object. The central element in this code, it suggests, is humanism/anthropology. It is not because man is a meaning producing being, who leaves behind traces of himself, that history-writing is possible; rather, it is historiography that helps secure this humanist/anthropological presumption. Moreover, the presumption that Man is a culture secreting and meaning producing being is not universally 'true', is not (pace Weber) a 'transcendental presupposition', but is rather a specifically modern and presumption. History-writing, the essay concludes, is not always adequate to non-Western pasts.

Item Type:

Article

Identification Number (DOI):

https://doi.org/10.1080/13688790802004729

Departments, Centres and Research Units:

Politics

Dates:

DateEvent
2008Published

Item ID:

4551

Date Deposited:

08 Nov 2010 09:21

Last Modified:

29 Apr 2020 15:29

Peer Reviewed:

Yes, this version has been peer-reviewed.

URI:

https://research.gold.ac.uk/id/eprint/4551

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