Toward a logic of historical constitution
pp. 19-52
in: Robert S. Cohen, Mark W. Wartofsky (eds), Epistemology, methodology, and the social sciences, Berlin, Springer, 1983Abstract
The question which it is my intention to explore in the pages which follow is, What makes an historical reconstruction acceptable? But before I begin, it seems appropriate to say something about the term "historical constitution,' particularly since so far as I know I am the only one who uses it. Such perverse idiosyncracy ought not to be indulged, yet in the present case some justification can be offered. I am not wedded to the term for its own sake, but it does seem to suit my purpose admirably. What I am trying to do when I use it, is to avoid using the established alternatives, because those alternatives carry along with them suggestions about history and historical knowing which I should want to reject.