On the metaphysical role of historicity

Abstract

ABSTRACT I argue that the philosophy of historicity forms the metaphysical core of the historical way of thinking and, therefore, is relevant as a philosophy of history and historiography. From this perspective, the scope of the theorization of history should extend to the substantive metaphysical ground in which the modern idea of history was built to disclose the main temporal character of the historical phenomena to which historicity refers. Hence, since my goal here is the clarification of the meaningfulness of historicity, I examine the philosophical tradition that investigates the transient nature of reality-a key feature of the historicity of existence represented by G. W. F. Hegel, F. W. J. Schelling, and, above all, Martin Heidegger-since this tradition includes especially valuable ontological arguments for illuminating hidden presuppositions in the still-relevant understanding of history.