Eugen Zeleňák "On Plurality, Relativism and Presentation in History"

On 09.06-10.06.2022, the Centre for Philosophical Studies of History organized the workshop "The Future of Philosophy of History" at the University of Oulu, Finland. This is the recording of Eugen Zeleňák's (Catholic University in Ruzomberok, Slovakia) talk "On Plurality, Relativism and Presentation in History" and the following discussion. For the programme of the entire workshop, please see:https://www.oulu.fi/en/events/future-....


Abstract

With a certain simplification, it is possible to maintain that narrativist philosophy of history dominated the whole philosophy of history during the last decades of the 20th century. Although in the 21st century this dominance ended, there are several “narrativist” topics and issues that still inspire ongoing discussions in the field. Narrativists presented an interesting criticism of a realist view of history and they defended a constructivist account of historical work. In response, this type of constructivist view of history has been often criticized for erasing boundaries between fact and fiction and for defending a relativist view of history. One may even conceive of narrativists as welcoming a certain type of plurality in history, but it is not clear whether they defended a relativist view (and if yes, in what sense).

I believe that the issue of plurality in history and relativism is an important topic deserving serious exploration even after the demise of narrativism. Several contemporary authors drawing on or criticizing narrativism deal with the issue of relativism, objectivity and, more generally, with the epistemic aspects of historical discipline. Thus, relativism seems to be one of the crucial topics which attracts attention and it deserves to be discussed in the future. In my paper, I attempt to characterize the topic of plurality and relativism, to explore its significance and to link it to the issue of presentation in history. For the issue of relativism seems to be closely linked to another crucial issue of how historians present their accounts: Do historians offer representations of the past or some other types of presentations?

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Recording: Georg Gangl
Concept: Georg Gangl/Jouni-Matti Kuukkanen/Ilkka Lähteenmäki/Kalle Pihlainen