Historical Teleologies in the Modern World

Historical Teleologies in the Modern World tracks the fragmentation and proliferation of teleological understandings of history – the notion that history had to be explained as a goal-directed process – in Europe and beyond throughout the 19th and into the 20th century. Historical teleologies have profoundly informed a variety of other disciplines, including modern philosophy, natural history, literature, humanitarian and religious philanthropism, the political thought and practice of revolution, emancipation, imperialism, colonialism and anti-colonialism, the conceptualization of universal humankind, and the understanding of modernity in general.

By exploring the extension and plurality of historical teleology, the essays in this volume revise the history of historicity in the modern period. Historical Teleologies in the Modern World casts doubt on the idea that a single, if powerful, conception of time could function as the unifying principle of all modern historicity, instead pursuing an investigation of the plurality of modern historicities and its underlying structures. By bringing together Western and non-Western histories, this book provides the first extended treatment of the idea of historical teleology. It will be of great value to students and scholars of modern global and intellectual history.

Henning Trüper is a member of the School of Social Science at the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton University, USA and the Centre de Recherches Historiques, École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, Paris, France.

Dipesh Chakrabarty is Lawrence A. Kimpton Distinguished Service Professor in History, South Asian Languages and Civilizations, and the College at the University of Chicago, USA.

Sanjay Subrahmanyam is Distinguished Professor of History at the University of California, Los Angeles, USA.

1. Introduction: History and Teleology - Nineteenth-Century Fortunes of an Enlightenment Project Henning Trüper (IAS Princeton, USA/EHESS-CRH, Paris), Dipesh Chakrabarty (University of Chicago, USA) and Sanjay Subrahmanyam (University of California, Los Angeles, USA)
2. Messianism Sanjay Subrahmanyam
3. The 'Vocation of Man': A Teleological Concept of the German Enlightenment and its Aftermath in the Nineteenth Century Philip Ajouri (University of Stuttgart, Germany)
4. Earth History and the Order of Society: William Buckland, the French Connection, and the Conundrum of Teleology Marianne Sommer (University of Lucerne, Switzerland)
5. After Darwin: Teleology in German Philosophical Anthropology Angus Nicholls (Queen Mary University London, UK)
6. Save Their Souls: Historical Teleology Goes to Sea in Nineteenth-Century Europe Henning Trüper
7. Reading History in Colonial Cuttack: Three Nineteenth-Century Narratives and their Teleologies Siddharth Satpathy
8. The 'Democracy of Blood': The Colors of Racial Fusion in Nineteenth-Century Spanish America Francisco Ortega (Universidad Nacional de Colombia)
9. Marxism and the Idea of Revolution in 1844: The Messianic Moment Etienne Balibar (Université Paris 8, France/Columbia University, USA)
10. Between Context and Telos: Reviewing the Structures of International Law Martti Koskenniemi (University of Helsinki, Finland)
11. Religious teleologies: Violence and the Apocalypse in the United States Antebellum Carola Dietze (University of Giessen, Germany)
12. 'But Was I Really Primed?' Gershom Scholem's Zionist Project Gabriel Piterberg (University of California, Los Angeles, USA)
13. Catching Up to Oneself: Islam and the Representation of Humanity Faisal Devji (Oxford University, UK)
14. Autonomy in History: Teleology in Nineteenth-Century European Social and Political Thought Peter Wagner (Universitat de Barcelona, Spain)
15. The Faces of Modernity: Crisis, Kairos, Chronos – Koselleck versus Hegel Bo Stråth (University of Helsinki, Finland)
16. Climate Change, Teleology, and the Narratives of Industrial Civilization Dipesh Chakrabarty
Index

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Historical Teleologies in the Modern World

Summary

Author Biography

Table of Contents

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