Historical Teleologies in the Modern World

Henning Trüper, Dipesh Chakrabarty, Sanjay Subrahmanyam

• Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
• Year: 2015
• Print ISBN:
  9781474221078
• Edition: 1
• eBook ISBN:
  9781474221092
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: 19th Century History
• Index: History

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.

Table of contents

• Cover page
• Halftitle page
• Series page
• Title page
• Copyright page
• CONTENTS
• ILLUSTRATIONS
• NOTES ON CONTRIBUTORS
• PREFACE
• PART I TWO GENEALOGIES OF HISTORICAL TELEOLOGY
• INTRODUCTION: TELEOLOGY AND HISTORY –NINETEENTH-CENTURY FORTUNES OF AN ENLIGHTENMENT PROJECT
• THE POLITICS OF ESCHATOLOGY: A SHORT READING OF THE LONG VIEW *
• PART II BOTCHED VANISHING ACTS: ON THE DIFFICULTIES OF MAKING TELEOLOGY DISAPPEAR
• ‘THE VOCATION OF MAN’ – ‘DIE BESTIMMUNG DES MENSCHEN’: A TELEOLOGICAL CONCEPT OF THE GERMAN ENLIGHTENMENT AND ITS AFTERMATH IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY *
• EARTH HISTORY AND THE ORDER OF SOCIETY: WILLIAM BUCKLAND, THE FRENCH CONNECTION AND THE CONUNDRUM OF TELEOLOGY
• AGAINST DARWIN: TELEOLOGY IN GERMAN PHILOSOPHICAL ANTHROPOLOGY *
• PART III BEFRIENDING TELEOLOGY: WRITING HISTORIES WITH ENDS
• SAVE THEIR SOULS: HISTORICAL TELELOGY GOES TO SEA IN NINETEENTH-CENTURY EUROPE *
• READING HISTORY IN COLONIAL INDIA: THREE NINETEENTH-CENTURY NARRATIVES AND THEIR TELEOLOGIES *
• A GIFT OF PROVIDENCE: DESTINY AS NATIONAL HISTORY IN COLONIAL INDIA
• PART IV TELEOLOGY IN THE REVOLUTIONARY POLIS
• THE ‘DEMOCRACY OF BLOOD’: THE COLOURS OF RACIAL FUSION INNINETEENTH-CENTURY SPANISH AMERICA
• BETWEEN CONTEXT AND TELOS: REVIEWING THE STRUCTURES OF INTERNATIONAL LAW
• MARXISM AND THE IDEA OF REVOLUTION:THE MESSIANIC MOMENT IN MARX
• PART V TRANSLATING FUTURES: ESCHATOLOGY, HISTORY AND THE INDIVIDUAL
• RELIGIOUS TELEOLOGIES, MODERNITY AND VIOLENCE: THE CASE OF JOHN BROWN *
• ‘BUT WAS I REALLY PRIMED?’: GERSHOM SCHOLEM’S ZIONIST PROJECT
• CATCHING UP WITH ONESELF: ISLAM AND THE REPRESENTATION OF HUMANITY
• PART VI HISTORICAL FUTURES WITHOUT DIRECTION?
• AUTONOMY IN HISTORY: TELEOLOGY INNINETEENTH-CENTURY EUROPEAN SOCIAL AND POLITICAL THOUGHT
• THE FACES OF MODERNITY: CRISIS, KAIROS, CHRONOS – KOSELLECK VERSUS HEGEL
• INDEX