996024 Ancient, New, Modern: Temporalities and Transformations (S) (WiSe 2018/2019)

The course is conceived as an exercise in conceptual and cultural history around three major concepts: ancient, new, modern. The aim is to explore the emergence of the three concepts in different contexts and times, their transformations, their quarrels and interplays up to the present.

The first day is a text discussion seminar, while the second day is reserved for presentations and discussions. As to the first day, most of the texts are short, please read them closely in order to have an informed debate. As to the second day, you are expected to look at your own project through the theoretical questions raised by the texts in giving a brief informal presentation on how the theoretical, methodological, and/or historiographical issues resonate with your own project. Please note that this means something other than a workshop presentation or the usual presentation of your project. Your focus should be on the question of how the issues of the seminar resonate with your project and not on the content of your project, and the presentation itself is not expected to be anything like a conference talk. The presentations will be followed by discussions of all participants of the seminar.

Reading and preparation list:
Aristotle, Poetics (Penguin: 1996), Chapter 9, 16–17. (Note that “Chapters” in Aristotle do not follow numbered headings – please check the table of contents)
Polybius, The Histories (Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press, 2010), 3–15.
Book of Daniel in the Old Testament, Chapter 2 and Chapter 7
Machiavelli, Discourses on Livy (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996), Preface.
Buffon, The Epochs of Nature (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2018), 3–22.
Condorcet, Outlines of an Historical View of the Progress of the Human Mind (Land and Ustick: Philadelphia, 1796), 9–24.
Reinhart Koselleck, Futures Past: On the Semantics of Historical Time (New York: Columbia University Press, 2004), 9–42. (Note that the discussion of Koselleck will actually revolve around the painting of Altdorfer discussed by Koselleck – search for it online and examine the painting)
Christophe Bouton, “Learning from History: The Transformations of the Topos Historia Magistra Vitae in Modernity,” Journal of the Philosophy of History, online first article, (2018), 1–33.
Francois Hartog, “Toward a New Historical Condition,” In Moritz Baumstark and Robert Forkel (eds), Historisierung: Begriff – Geschichte – Praxisfelder (Stuttgart: J.B. Metzler, 2016), 271–282.
Please collect info on and study the Ring of Memory WWI memorial: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L%27Anneau_de_la_m%C3%A9moire

The texts will soon be uploaded to the Lernraum. Please register with an email to zoltan.simon@uni-bielefeld.de until November, 2 2018