SCOPE
The Network focuses on the uses of history in eight constituent areas within the humanities and social sciences: economics, political science, political theory, international relations, sociology, philosophy, law and literature. Participants contribute expertise developed within their respective fields of specialisation.
The overall aim is to address collectively three essential questions: (i) What is the function of historical study within the various disciplines covered? (ii) What are the commonalities and differences between these diverse modes of inquiry? (iii) What does historical knowledge contribute to research in the humanities and social sciences?
CONTEXT
Historicism as an approach to understanding the world emerged in various areas of humanistic study in the sixteenth century, and continued to conquer a range of disciplines over the next few hundred years: philology, jurisprudence, political science, economics, belle lettres, and moral philosophy. By the end of the nineteenth century in Germany, historicism had come to be seen as a precondition for any form of knowledge whatsoever. However, the success of the research methods associated with the natural sciences in the twentieth century, combined with the spread of positivism and the progress of specialisation, have led to a fragmentation of purpose within the humanities and social sciences, and various forms of polarisation between theoretical and historical understanding. The overriding objective of this project is to undo these polarities, ascertain the limits of historical reasoning, and reconnect the historical profession with the fundamental questions that animate adjacent disciplines.
APPLICATION
Cumulatively, our efforts are designed to show how the various forms of historical practice constitute vital assets across the human sciences. The Network therefore amounts to an experiment in thinking historically about diverse domains of inquiry. We hope to encourage a paradigm shift in how we approach many of the problems faced in our sample disciplines. Our objective is to make plain the dividends that can be expected to flow from such an undertaking. In short, we propose to set out the intellectual advantages that can be expected from a new historical turn in the human sciences.