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Die Terminologie von Epochen – Überlegungen am Beispiel Frühe Neuzeit/,early modern‘
Author(s) -
Nipperdey Justus
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
berichte zur wissenschaftsgeschichte
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.109
H-Index - 8
eISSN - 1522-2365
pISSN - 0170-6233
DOI - 10.1002/bewi.201501719
Subject(s) - terminology , meaning (existential) , modernity , teleology , historiography , period (music) , philosophy , early modern period , conceptual history , term (time) , history , humanities , epistemology , literature , linguistics , art , aesthetics , politics , ancient history , law , political science , archaeology , physics , quantum mechanics
The Significance of Terminology for the Idea of a Historical Period – Considerations on Frühe Neuzeit/Early Modern. This article focuses on the relationship between the names given to historical periods and the attributed substance of that period. It argues that the possibility of a neutralisation in terms of substantive meaning depends on the terminology used to delineate a historical period. Considering the example of ‘early modern history’ the article sketches the usage of that term in twentieth century historiography. While it is clear that the concept cannot escape the inherent teleology of modernity succeeding pre‐modern ages, the analysis shows that historians have used ‘early modern’ in surprisingly divers ways trying to overcome the semantic meaning of the term itself.