The 20th Century in Basic Concepts. A Dictionary of Historical Semantics in Germany
The project The 20th Century in Basic Concepts. Dictionary of Socio-Political and Cultural Semantics in Germany continues the historical dictionary Basic Concepts in History, associated with Reinhart Koselleck. The articles therein concentrated on the so-called ‘Sattelzeit,’ the epochal threshold in which the cultural semantics of medieval Europe transformed into the modern world, that is, on a conceptual-historical examination of the emergence of modernity. In the entire 119 articles, however, the 20th century merely figures in short outlooks. They reveal that by the 20th century many concepts had already lost their radiance, had become semantically empty or obsolete, or had been replaced by new concepts.
The planned dictionary is an interdisciplinary and cooperative research project intended to go beyond enshrining established knowledge. Rather, we intend to make an experimental contribution to basic research in the humanities, in cultural studies, social sciences, and in history. Taking our cue from Koselleck’s characterization of the historical narrative, our aim is ‘writing down, writing further and rewriting history’ from the perspective of a changed present. Especially, however, new basic concepts emerging in the 20th century shall be examined. As such, Koselleck’s overarching hypotheses will be put to the test and, in turn, may possibly be historicized themselves.
Methodologically, the concepts will be approached from a different perspective than in the original endeavor, conceived of more than half a century ago. This concerns, for example, the use of broader source material that is more easily accessible and evaluated with digital technologies today. Conceptually, this entails not only the inclusion of metaphor, as called for by Koselleck himself, but also a fresh approach to the relation of factual and conceptual history.
Fig. above: Naomi Booth. Source: Pixabay.
since 2020
See also
- Forum Interdisziplinäre Begriffsgeschichte (FIB) (E-Journal, Open Access, since 2012)
- Contributions to the History of Concepts (on the ZfL BLOG)
- The Theory and Concept of an Interdisciplinary Conceptual History (Ernst Müller, Barbara Picht, Falko Schmieder, Project 2008–2019)
Subproject(s)
Basic Socio-Political Concepts of Scientific Provenance
Associate researchers: Barbara Picht, Falko Schmieder
Research affiliate: Christian Hoekema (ERASMUS fellow)
The ZfL-based subproject will analyze concepts that originated in or were significantly shaped by scientific discourse, circulated between disciplines and migrated into socio-political as well as everyday discourse. These include concepts such as ‘Diversität,’ ‘Energie,’ ‘Evolution,’ ‘Funktion,’ ‘Gen,’ ‘Generation,’ ‘Geschlecht,’ ‘Information,’ ‘Kommunikation,’ ‘Medien,’ ‘Nachhaltigkeit,’ ‘Natur,’ ‘Netz,’ ‘Ökologie,’ ‘Prävention,’ ‘Prognose,’ ‘Rasse,’ ‘Regulation,’ ‘Struktur,’ ‘Theorie,’ ‘Trauma,’ ‘Umwelt.’ This type of concept is specific for the socio-political language of the 20th century and sets it apart from that of previous centuries. This type reflects the tendency of a decreasing reliability or a faster expiration time of concepts which involves a liquefaction of meaning. This results particularly from the concepts losing their reification during their diverse migrations between the different social spheres and thus functioning as randomly interpretable empty formulas or non-words. One question is whether the tension between experience and expectation as highlighted by Koselleck is still true for this type of basic concepts and which new forms it might take. In comparison to Koselleck’s Basic Concepts in History (Geschichtliche Grundbegriffe), this type of concept also documents a shift in formative semantics from the historical- and sociophilosophical to the scientific level which was formulated under the keywords of a scientification of the social or a politicization of the sciences.
The project can connect with the ZfL’s longstanding experience with an interdisciplinary history of knowledge and of the social. The goal to properly grasp the terms migrating between the knowledge cultures and disciplines with broad dispersion requires additional digital tools from concept history research which are capable of analyzing clusters and domains of different disciplinary uses of concepts synchronically and diachronically. Here, also, a wide range of groundwork has been made and can now be expanded upon.
Basic Socio-Political Concepts with Large Scope and Duration
Associate researcher: Stefan Scholl
The IDS-based project explores a selection of political basic concepts. It focusses on politically relevant partial corpora such as the publicist discourse during the post-war era, the parliament protocols of the 20th century, or political speeches during National Socialism. This focus centers on the corpus-based analysis of a concept-constituting use of language and its methodical contextualization.
Basic Socio-Political Concepts Negotiating Concepts of Time and Progress
Associate researcher: Simon Specht
The ZFF-based project analyzes the change of concepts that express temporality and historic transformation. It focusses on concepts such as ‘Fortschritt,’ ‘Krise,’ ‘Entwicklung/Evolution,’ ‘Modernisierung,’ ‘Zukunft,’ or ‘Utopie,’ concepts that were politically controversial and that, time and time again, served the determination of their own place in history as they were discussed in society.
Publications
FORUM INTERDISZIPLINÄRE BEGRIFFSGESCHICHTE (FIB)
DOI 10.13151/fib.2022.01
Begriffsgeschichte des 20. Jahrhunderts
Themenheft des Archivs für Begriffsgeschichte
FORUM INTERDISZIPLINÄRE BEGRIFFSGESCHICHTE (FIB)
DOI 10.13151/fib.2021.01
Begriffsgeschichte
zur Einführung
FORUM INTERDISZIPLINÄRE BEGRIFFSGESCHICHTE (FIB)
Ernst Müller
- El descubrimiento del valor emocional en la historia conceptual, in: Quaderns de filosofia 9.1 (2022) = Emociones en la historia conceptual. La historia como emoción, ed. by Antonio Gómez Ramos and Manuel Orozco Pérez, 19–32
- El concepto “espíritu del pueblo” y la historicidad del derecho. Savigny y Hegel, in: Manuel Ángel Bermejo Castrillo (ed.): Temporalidades inter/disciplinares (Derecho, Filosofía, Política). Madrid: Dykinson 2021, 143–160
- ‘Kristallisation’ und ‘Verflüssigung’ als Metaphern der Geschichtstheorie, in: Forum Interdisziplinäre Begriffsgeschichte 10.1 (2021), ed. by Ernst Müller and Falko Schmieder, 38–45
- Wende, in: Faltblatt zum ZfL Jahresthema 2020/21: EPOCHENWENDEN and in: ZfL Blog, 16 Nov 2020
Barbara Picht
- Teorías temporales de la modernidad comparadas: Braudel, Koselleck, Bauman, in: Manuel Ángel Bermejo Castrillo (ed.): Temporalidades inter/disciplinares (Derecho, Filosofía, Política). Madrid: Dykinson 2021, 191–203
- Schiefrunde Perlen. Zum Deutungsanspruch metaphorischer Epochennamen, in: Forum Interdisziplinäre Begriffsgeschichte 10.1 (2021), ed. by Ernst Müller and Falko Schmieder, 6–12
Falko Schmieder
- El concepto de supervivencia como instrumento para la política del miedo: la colonización de la vida cotidiana en los discursos de la guerra nuclear y de la ecología, in: Quaderns de filosofia 9.1 (2022) = Emociones en la historia conceptual. La historia como emoción, ed. by Antonio Gómez Ramos and Manuel Orozco Pérez, 147–164
- Sobre la política de la asimultaneidad en Ernst Bloch, Walter Benjamin y Theodor W. Adorno, in: Manuel Ángel Bermejo Castrillo (ed.): Temporalidades inter/disciplinares (Derecho, Filosofía, Política). Madrid: Dykinson 2021, 229–246
- Geschichtsmetaphern und ihre Geschichte. Eine Auseinandersetzung mit Reinhart Koselleck, in: Forum Interdisziplinäre Begriffsgeschichte 10.1 (2021), ed. by Ernst Müller and Falko Schmieder, 25–37
The project continues the long-standing research on the theory and practice of interdisciplinary history of concepts from which these publications, among others, have resulted:
Ernst Müller, Falko Schmieder
- Begriffsgeschichte zur Einführung. Hamburg: Junius 2020
- Begriffsgeschichte und historische Semantik. Ein kritisches Kompendium. Berlin: Suhrkamp 2016, 2nd edition 2019
- Ed.: Begriffsgeschichte der Naturwissenschaften. Zur historischen Dimension naturwissenschaftlicher Konzepte. Berlin, New York: de Gruyter 2008