Exemplifying Past - A Philosophy of History

This book addresses a wide range of philosophical problems about history and the semantics of time. The point of departure is the distinction between events under the description of past witnesses and their contemporaries and events under the description of historians. Its main claim is that a thesis on the past is exemplified rather than being justified by the available evidence. Such thesis, the book argues, retroactively becomes concrete in the past under consideration. This book will not only appeal to philosophers and historians, but to students and scholars across the humanities.

List of contents

Preface, 1. Introduction: Retroaction, Indeterminacy, and Seeing-in, 2. Periods and Other Minds, 3. Mink's Riddle of Narrative Truth, 4. Resemblance, Substitution, Expression, 5. Exemplification, 6. Danto's End of Art, Bibliography, Index

About the author

Dr. Chiel van den Akker is lecturer Historical Theory at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. He is the author of Elementaire Deeltjes - Geschiedenis (Athenaeum 2019) and The Exemplifying Past. A Philosophy of History (Amsterdam University Press 2018).

Product details

• Authors: Chiel Akker, Chiel van den Akker, Chiel (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam Van Den Akker
• Publisher: Taylor & Francis Ltd.
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 01.12.2025
• EAN: 9781041187813
• ISBN: 978-1-0-4118781-3
• No. of pages: 158
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > History > General, dictionaries; PHILOSOPHY / General, History: theory & methods, HISTORY / General, History: theory and methods, historical image;narrative;representation;truth