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Order and History

There is a historicist approach that is compatible with the notion of transhistorical order and probably even with the notion of transcendence, understood in a new way. ~Claes Ryn, “Defining Historicism,” Humanitas 11.2 (1998): 86-101 Thanks to reader Michael Keegan for sending me a copy of Prof. Ryn’s article on historicism. This presents a much […]

There is a historicist approach that is compatible with the notion of transhistorical order and probably even with the notion of transcendence, understood in a new way. ~Claes Ryn, “Defining Historicism,” Humanitas 11.2 (1998): 86-101

Thanks to reader Michael Keegan for sending me a copy of Prof. Ryn’s article on historicism. This presents a much more interesting view of an idea that I unfortunately first encountered by way of Karl Popper’s very odd interpretations of history and ideas in history.

On a somewhat related matter, it strikes me as particularly funny that those of us who were defending the “crunchy con” idea were frequently accused by one group of “sacralising politics” and putting too much emphasis on transcendence and the Permanent Things and now find ourselves accused on the other side of rejecting transcendent truth because we place too much importance on tradition. That suggests to me that we are probably close to the right balance, or we are at least headed in the right direction.

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