The next session of PhiloHist will be on Thursday 6th March at 5pm in SSEES room 431. We will be reading Friedrich Nietzsche, “On the uses and disadvantages of history for life” Untimely Meditations 4-10 from Daniel Breazedale (ed.) Untimely Meditations (Cambridge Univerity Press, 1997)  pp. 77-123. [Click for PDF]

In a change to the previously advertised schedule, the next PhiloHist session will be on February 7th at 5pm in SSEES (16, Taviton Street), 4th floor, room 431.

We will be reading Friedrich Nietzsche, On the Utility and Liability of History for Life in Keith Ansell Pearson & Duncan Large (eds.) The Nietzsche Reader (Oxford, Blackwell, 2006) pp. 124-141.

This is an excerpted version. For the full version, see Nietzsche, Untimely Meditations (Cambridge University Press, 1983, 1997)

For background and commentary, see David D. Roberts, Nothing But History: Reconstruction and Extremity After Metaphysics (University of California Press, 1995) pp. 58-80.

Happy new year to all!

The time and location for philosophy of history is changing! This term, we will be meeting on Thursdays at 5pm. We will still meet in SSEES (16 Taviton Street) but now in room 431 on the 4th Floor. New members always welcome!

The meetings this term will be on: 17th January, 7th February and 6th March.
For the first session (Thursday 17th January, 5pm) we will be discussing some selections from Marx & Engels The German Ideology part 1. You can download a pdf file of the relevant selections here.

Further reading suggestion:

M. C. Lemon, Philosophy of History: A Guide for Students (Routledge 2003) ch. 10. (pp. 238-278): “Marx’s philosophy of history”.

The next PhiloHist session will be on Friday 7th December in SSEES, room 535 (click on the ‘locations’ tab for the address and a map)

We will read an essay by Isaiah Berlin, “Historical Inevitability”. This can be found in the various editions listed below, but as far as I know they are all the same.

I. Berlin, Historical Inevitability (Oxford UP, 1959)

“Historical Inevitability” in I. Berlin, Four Essays on Liberty (Oxford UP, 1969)

“Historical Inevitability” in I. Berlin, Liberty: Incorporating ‘Four Essays on Liberty’ (Oxford UP, 2002) ed. Henry Hardy.

“Historical Inevitability” in I. Berlin, The Proper Study of Mankind: An Anthology of Essays (Chatto & Windus, 1997) eds. Henry Hardy & Roger Hausheer

UCL students can also access it online through Oxford Scholarship Online by clicking here and then typing ‘Isaiah Berlin’ in the quick search box. If my link does not work, go to the Ebooks home page, and find the link to Oxford Scholarsip Online.

In any case, I think there will be enough copies in the various editions for everyone to get it in book form.

If you have any problems finding a copy, please contact me: s.pawley@”REMOVE”ucl.ac.uk

The next meeting will be on Friday 23 November at 5pm in SSEES (14 Taviton Street) room 535. All welcome!

For the next session, we will read two short articles examining the nature of evidence, historical interpretation, and standards of proof. This will link with issues about the status of history raised in earlier sessions on Hayden White and Paul Ricoeur. The articles are:

Wendie Ellen Schneider, “Past Imperfect: Irving vs. Penguin books” The Yale Law Journal Vol. 110, No. 8 (Jun., 2001), pp. 1531-1545.

and Carlo Ginzburg, “Just one Witness” in Saul Friedlander (ed.) Probing the Limits of Representation: Nazism and the ‘Final Solution’ (Harvard University Press, 1992) pp. 82-96.

Thanks to Clare for the suggestion.

Our discussion of Ricoeur last week helped to clarify some important conceptual problems in dealing with the past and the position of the histrorian, which I hope we can pursue throughout the year. However, at Will’s suggestion, we are moving on to something rather different for the next session. Charles Tilly’s book Big Structures, Large Processes, Huge Comparisons is as audacious as its title suggests. It is an attack on the way we understand the idea of ‘modernization’ and challenges many of the categories that structure our understanding of society. It should generate a lively discussion!
For the next session, on Friday November 2nd, we will be reading the first four chapters (pp. 1-86).

Charles Tilly, Big Structures, Large Processes, Huge Comparisons (New York: Russell Sage Foundation, 1984) chapters 1-4

Room 535 of the SSEES (School of Slavonic and East European Studies) building, 16 Taviton Street. Friday November 2nd, 5pm.

There are a few copies available in various libraries, but if you are unable to get hold of one, please send me a message and I will try to sort out some photocopies.

s.pawley”AT”ucl.ac.uk

We return for another year of PhiloHist!

The First meeting will be on Friday October 12th at 5pm. We are now in a new location: Room 535 of the SSEES (School of Slavonic and East European Studies) building, 16 Taviton Street. When you enter the building, there is a lift on your left which takes you up to the 5th floor.

We will be discussing: Paul Ricoeur, The Reality of the Historical Past (Milwaukee: Marquette University Press, 1984; 51pp)

As the piece discusses Hayden White at some length, new members may find it useful to have a look at the chapter by White that we read last year. See http://philohist.wordpress.com/2007/02/07/hayden-white/

I am taking over organization for this year, so if you have any queries about the group, if you’d like to join in, or if you have any suggestions for readings, please email me: s.pawley(at)ucl.ac.uk

Simon.

This is the online home of a reading group in the Philosophy of History, based at Birkbeck College, London.

We will be re-convening in the Autumn term of 2007 and will welcome new members, new suggestions for readings and new chair-people for our meetings.

For more information or requests please contact me on:

daniel.wilson”AT”history.bbk.ac.uk

For the final meeting of the year, we will be reading Jared Diamond’s controversial Guns, Germs and Steel, which can be found in most libraries and in cheap paperback. Please look at the introduction, “Yali’s Question” and also this review of the book from the NYRB by William McNeill which also includes Diamond’s response. If you have time, please also read the concluding chapter of the book as well as this article by JR McNeill in the History Co-operative Journal.

As usual we meet at 5pm on Friday, in room 261, Malet Street.

Our next meeting will be on Friday June 8th, at 5pm, in Birkbeck Room 261, Malet Street.

The topic will be Prosopography or, group biography, as a tool for History.

Please look at the articles by Lawrence Stone and Steven Shapin & Arnold Thackray.

• Stone, Lawrence. “Prosopography.” Daedalus. 100.1 (1971): 46-79.
• Shapin, Steven, and Arnold Thackray. “Prosopography as a Research Tool in History of Science: The British Scientific Community 1700-1900.” History of Science. 12 (1974): 1-28.