REFLECTIONS ON TEMPORAL PERSPECTIVE: THE USE AND ABUSE OF HINDSIGHT. Issue 4 (11th December 2018)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: CARR, DAVID
• Other Names: Stark Laura guestEditor.
• Is Part Of: History and theory. Volume 57:Issue 4(2018)
• Page Start: 71
• Page End: 80
• Publication Date: 2018-12-11
• Subjects: temporal perspective -- hindsight -- chronology -- presentism -- Danto -- Foucault -- Braudel -- Mann; History -- Philosophy -- Periodicals; Histoire -- Philosophie -- Périodiques; 901
• DOI: 10.1111/hith.12086
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0018-2656

Abstract

ABSTRACT: In this article I focus on the temporal aspects of the historian's situation: being in the present and representing the past. Writing is a time‐bound process. It is in this context that the notion of temporal perspective arises. What follows is a series of reflections, variations on the theme, perhaps, of temporal perspective as it figures in historical writing. The concept of hindsight figures prominently in these reflections. I also deal with examples of superimposed chronology that sometimes result from temporal perspective. My reflections avoid grand conclusions about time and history. I hope they may instead cast some modest light on the issues.