'''Historicism''' is a term which applies to a number of theories of culture or historical development which place the greatest weight on two factors:
# that there is an organic succession of developments,
=== New Historicism ===
{{main|New Historicism}}
Since the 1950's, when [[Lacan]] and [[Foucault]] argued that each epoch has its own knowledge system, which individuals are inexorably entangled with, many [[post-structuralist | post-structuralists]] have used ''historicism'' to describe the view that all questions must be settled within the cultural and social context that they are raised in, answers cannot be found by appeal to an external truth, but only within the confines of the norms and forms that phrase the question. This version of historicism holds that there are only the raw texts, markings and artifacts that exist in the present, and the conventions used to decode them. This school of thought sometimes goes by the name of ''New Historicism''.
Within the context of 20th century philosophy, the conflict over whether ahistorical and immanent methodologies were sufficient to understand meaning — that is to say, what you see is what you get positivism — or whether context, background and culture are important beyond the mere need to decode words, phrases and references. While post-structural historicism is relativist in its orientation, that is, it sees each culture as its own frame of reference, a large number of thinkers have embraced the need for historical context, not because culture is self-referential, but because there is no more compressed means of conveying all of the relevant information except through history. This view is often seen as being rooted in the work of [[Bennedetto Croce]]. Recent philosophers in this tradition include [[Thomas Kuhn]].
=== Biblical historicism === In [[Christianity | Christian]] circles, the term ''historicism'' refers to the confessional [[Protestantism | Protestant]] form of prophetical interpretation which holds that the fulfilment of [[Bible | biblical]] [[prophecy]] has taken place throughout history and continues to take place today; as opposed to other methods which limit the time-frame of prophecy-fulfillment to the past or to the future. The historicist method is what led reformers throughout Europe to declare that the pope was the man of sin sitting on the seven hills of Rome. Examples of famous Christians and sects declaring the pope to be the antichrist include the Waldensians, Albigenses, Lollards, Lutherans, Calvinists, Hussians, and a host of individuals, including the father of the modern English Bible William Tyndale and even articles of faith such as the Westminster Confession of Faith. Protestant sites that continue to declare the pope as the antichrist using the historicist method include those listed below under the External links. == See also == * [[sociocultural evolution]] == References == * [[Hans-Georg | Gadamer ]] ''Truth and Method''* [[Ronald J. Pestritto]] ''[[Woodrow Wilson]] and the roots of modern liberalism'' 2005* [[Karl Popper|Popper, Karl]]. 1945. ''The Open Society and Its Enemies'' (in 2 volumes). (ISBN 0691019681) Routledge.* [[Karl Popper|Popper, Karl]]. 1993. ''The Poverty of Historicism''. (ISBN 0415065690) Routledge.* [[G.W.F Hegel]] ''Philosophy of History''* [[Franz Boas]] ''The Mind of Primitive Man'' 1911 == External links == Hegel * [http://www.hegel.org/ The Hegel Society of America]* [http://www.hegel.net/ Site Hegel]* [http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/hegel/ Hegel in Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy]* [httpCategory://www.gwfhegel.org/ gwfhegel.orgPphilosophy]* [http://www.historyguide.org/intellect/hegel.html Hegel page in 'The History Guide'] Anthropology * [http://www.as.ua.edu/ant/Faculty/murphy/histor.htm Historicism in Anthropology] Popper * [http://lachlan.bluehaze.com.au/books/popper_poverty_of_historicism.html Extracts from ''The Poverty of Historicism''] New Historicism * [http://www.sou.edu/English/Hedges/Sodashop/RCenter/Theory/Explaind/nhistexp.htm New Historicism Explained] * [http://www.nhinet.org/ryn-rob.htm Claes G. Ryn, ''Defining Historicism'' ]* [http://www.as.ua.edu/ant/Faculty/murphy/histor.htm M. D. Murphy, ''Historicism''] Biblical Prophecy * [http://www.historicism.net/ historicism.net]* [http://www.historicism.com/ historicism.com] * [http://www.rev14.info/ rev14.info]* [http://www.historicist.com/ historicist.com] * [http://www.ianpaisley.org/ ianpaisley.org] * [http://www.truthleftbehind.com/ truthleftbehind.com]
Historicism (184-5)
