more from this thinker     |     more from this text

Single Idea 15039

[filed under theme 25. Social Practice / E. Policies / 5. Education / d. Study of history ]

Full Idea

History has no 'meaning', but it is not absurd or incoherent. On the contrary, it is intelligible and should be susceptible of analysis down to the smallest detail - but this in accordance with the intelligibility of struggles, of strategies and tactics.

Gist of Idea

History lacks 'meaning', but it can be analysed in terms of its struggles

Source

Michel Foucault (Truth and Power (interview) [1976], p.116)

Book Ref

Foucault,Michel: 'Essential Works 1954-1984 3: Power', ed/tr. Faubion,J [Penguin 2002], p.116

A Reaction

I take this to be an essentially Marxist view, in which one teases out the dialectical processes of any period. I can't think of a better way to approach history. The alternative is to only recount one side of the struggle, which must be bad history.

The 19 ideas with the same theme [ideas about the study and teaching of history]:

1866 It is heresy to teach that history repeats every 36,000 years [Anon (Par)]
19593 Persons are shaped by a life history; splendid persons are shaped by world history [Novalis]
23270 We should all agree that there is reason in history [Hegel]
21987 History is the progress of the consciousness of freedom [Hegel]
5279 Human history must always be studied in relation to industry and exchange [Marx/Engels]
5286 Most historians are trapped in the illusions of their own epoch [Marx/Engels]
5301 The history of all existing society is the history of class struggles [Marx/Engels]
20261 History does not concern what really happened, but supposed events, which have all the influence [Nietzsche]
24095 Our growth is too subtle to perceive, and long events are too slow for us to grasp [Nietzsche]
24128 After history following God, or a people, or an idea, we now see it in terms of animals [Nietzsche]
14883 We should evaluate the past morally [Nietzsche]
23873 Dividing history books into separate chapters is disastrous [Weil]
19605 Despite endless suggestions, no one has found a goal for history [Cioran]
19637 History is wonderfully devoid of meaning [Cioran]
15039 History lacks 'meaning', but it can be analysed in terms of its struggles [Foucault]
7979 The arrival of the news media brought history to an end [Baudrillard]
22819 In the 18th century history came to be seen as progressive, rather than cyclical [Hösle]
20675 The more you know about history, the harder it becomes to explain [Harari]
20676 History teaches us that the present was not inevitable, and shows us the possibilities [Harari]