Rewriting the past: Retrospective description and its consequences

Philosophy of the Social Sciences 32 (1):3-24 (2002)
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Abstract

This article seeks to answer the following questions: is Quentin Skinner right to claim that actions in the past should not be described by means of concepts not available at the time those actions occurred? And is Ian Hacking right to claim that such descriptions do not merely describe but actually change the past? The author begins by arguing that it is not clear precisely what Skinner is claiming and shows how, under the pressure of criticism, his methodological strictures collapse into trivialities. The author then argues that, although Hacking has given us no reason to accept his claim, we can make sense of it by appealing to the idea of a "Cambridge change." The author concludes by suggesting that as long as we are exercising the right kind of concepts, a suitably modified version of Hacking 's conclusion can be retained. Key Words: action • history • changes in the past • Quentin Skinner • Ian Hacking.

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Citations of this work

Ways of pastmaking.Paul A. Roth - 2002 - History of the Human Sciences 15 (4):125-143.
Philosophy of History and History of Philosophy of Science.Thomas Uebel - 2017 - Hopos: The Journal of the International Society for the History of Philosophy of Science 7 (1):1-30.

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References found in this work

How to do things with words.John Langshaw Austin - 1962 - Oxford [Eng.]: Clarendon Press. Edited by Marina Sbisá & J. O. Urmson.
Intention.G. E. M. Anscombe - 1957 - Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.
The social construction of what?Ian Hacking - 1999 - Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press.

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