220080 On the advantage and disadvantage of scepticism for History (in the early modern period) (S) (WiSe 2020/2021)

One of the deepest shocks that history writing experienced in the 17th and again in the 18th century was its radical questioning as a form of knowledge of the past. This form of scepticism towards historical knowledge was then called "historical pyrrhonism". Skeptics fundamentally denied the certainty of historical knowledge, thus putting the writing of history under massive pressure to legitimize it. The resulting reflections played a major role in the emergence of history as a science with its own set of rules and its method.
This course focuses on the analysis of arguments for/against the possibility of achieving certainty in historical knowledge. Furthermore, the question will be investigated as to what consequences these disputes had for the development of the historical discipline and still have.

This course consists of two interrelated seminars:
The first seminar (220080) takes place on Thursdays from 12 noon to 2 p.m. and analyses scepticism and its various expressions, based on relevant secondary and primary literature.
The second seminar (220081) takes place on Thursdays from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. and examines debates on scepticism, the pro and contra arguments and the solutions, based on selected sources.
Students have to attend both seminars to complete one of the Master Modules as shown in the section "Fachzuordnung".

Requirements for participation, required level

Ability to read and discuss academic texts in English.
Since the seminar is addressed to German and international students, the „Bibliography“ below also includes German, French, and English texts which have a reference character and which can be read according to one's own language skills.

Bibliography

• Borghero, Carlo: La certezza e la storia: cartesianesimo, pirronismo e conoscenza storica, Milano 1983.
• Matytsin, Anton M.: The specter of skepticism in the age of Enlightenment, Baltimore 2016.
• Popkin, Richard H.: The history of scepticism from Savonarola to Bayle, Oxford 2003.
• Raskolnikoff, Mouza: Histoire romaine et critique historique dans l’Europe des lumières la naissance de l’hypercritique dans l’historiographie de la Rome antique, Strasbourg 1992.
• Schlüter, Gisela (ed.): Der Historische Pyrrhonismus. Themenheft der Zeitschrift Das achtzehnte Jahrhundert, 31/2 (2007).