Nothing but history

the long version

What role is left for history in a "postmetaphysical" world - a world without foundations or certainties? The assault on foundational philosophy has prompted deconstruction and other extreme responses, which sometimes suggest that historians offer little more than a particular type of fiction. In this original and wide-ranging study, David Roberts places the extremes in new perspective and offers a reconstructive alternative. He argues that as we adjust to a postmetaphysical culture, historical inquiry not only retains its autonomy but becomes more central than ever, providing the understanding necessary for ongoing action. Roberts analyzes the interplay of historical and antihistorical themes in the work of major thinkers from Nietzsche, Croce, and Heidegger to Gadamer, Foucault, Derrida, and Rorty. Through his lucid reassessment of these thinkers, he shows how the postmodern extremes and the reconstructive impulse can work in fruitful tension as we learn to cope with a world that ceaselessly slips and changes. We have reason to experience ourselves as history-making actors, but we also have reason to resist a world that seems to reduce us to nothing but history.