| |
BY JEFFREY C. ISAAC History, as an entirety, could exist only in
the eyes of an observer outside it and
outside the world. History only exists, in
the final analysis, for God ( Camus, 1956 , p.
189). The historicist does not recognize that it is
we who select and order the facts of history
. . . Instead of recognizing that historical
interpretation should answer a need aris-
ing out of the practical problems and
decisions which face us, the historicist
believes that . . . by contemplating history
we may discover the secret, the essence of
human destiny. Historicism is out to find
The Path on which mankind is destined to
walk; it is out to discover The Clue to
History or The Meaning of History . . .
[Yet] history has no meaning ( Popper, 1971 ,
p. 269).
IN 1789 the Ancien Regime fell, accompanied by the crash of
falling ramparts ( Camus, 1956 , p. 26). Punctuating an age of
democratic revolution, the upheaval caught the attention of
the world. 1 Immanuel Kant spoke for many "enlightened"
thinkers when he observed that: "The revolution of a gifted
people which we have seen unfolding in our day may succeed ____________________
| * | This paper was originaly presented at the Political Theory Colloquium at the
Department of Politics, Princeton University, and the Colloquium on Democratization,
the Department of Political Science, Indiana University. I would like to thank Dana
Chabot, Jacek Dalecki, Judy Failer, Matt Filner, Norm Furniss, Amy Guttman, Daryl
Hammer, Ilya Harik, Jeff Hart, Greg Kasza, George Kateb, Elisabeth Kiss, David
Korfhage, Stephen Macedo, Lawrence Mead, Dina Spechler, Ian Shapiro, Yael Tamir,
Nadia Urbanati, Michael Walzer, and John Williams for their helpful questions and
comments. | -291- | |
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