What Is Radical Historicism?. (March 2015)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Bevir, Mark
• Is Part Of: Philosophy of the social sciences. Volume 45:Number 2(2015:Mar.)
• Page Start: 258
• Page End: 265
• Publication Date: 2015-03
• Subjects: critical theory -- genealogy -- historicism -- Stephen Turner; Social sciences -- Periodicals; Social sciences -- Methodology -- Periodicals; Sciences sociales -- Périodiques; Sciences sociales -- Méthodologie -- Périodiques; 300.1
• DOI: 10.1177/0048393114531374
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0048-3931

Abstract

This article responds to Stephen Turner's discussion of my article, "Historicism and Critique." I emphasize that radical historicism consists of substantive philosophical commitments. One commitment is to a historicized epistemology that presents objective knowledge as a product of a comparison between rival webs of belief. Another commitment is to a historical ontology that presents aggregate concepts in the social sciences as inherently pragmatic. These substantive commitments provide a plausible basis for various forms of critique. They lead to analyses of genealogical and ideological critique that differ from appeals to genealogy as a kind of groundless skepticism toward, and problematization of, all substantive commitments.