The German Historicist Tradition
The German thinkers who decided history was the key to everything, and why almost nobody reads them now.
Frederick Beiser recovers a tradition running from Moser and Herder through Ranke to Dilthey, holding that human beings can only be understood historically rather than through timeless principles. It is long and dense, yet Beiser writes with remarkable clarity for material this abstract. The book doubles as background for anyone tracing where the Austrian School got its ideas about method.
Recommended by 1 Person
Tyler Cowen
Frederick C. Beiser, The German Historicist Tradition. Lengthy and dense, but full of good material and written with extreme indeed almost unbelievable clarity. The historicists are these days the underdiscussed approach in the history of German thought. If nothing else, this book is also excellent background for grasping the development of Austrian School methodology in economics. After reading it, I did proceed to order further books by the same author.
Source · July 2024
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