Transhistoricity
Quality of holding across all human historical epochs.
Transhistoricity is the quality of holding throughout human history, rather than only within the frame of reference of a particular form of society at a particular stage of historical development. An entity or concept that possesses this quality is described as transhistorical. Certain theories of history, such as that of Hegel, treat human history as divided into distinct epochs with their own internal logics, meaning states of affairs that hold in one epoch may be absent or carry opposite implications in another.
Quick Facts
- Field
- Historiography
- sociopolitical theory
- aesthetics
Facts from the source article.
Did You Know?
- Part of the debate over the distinction between high art and folk art hinges on whether art can aspire to transcend the particular frame of reference within which it was produced.
- This frame may be taken to be historically delimited.
In sociopolitical theory
The concept of transhistoricity is mainly debated by historians and sociologists within Hegelian or Marxist historicist traditions, and also appears in discussions about Thomas Kuhn’s idea of paradigm shifts. Marxist literary theorist Fredric Jameson argued that theory must “Always historicize!”, noting that this very command is itself a “transhistorical imperative.” Some researchers seek transhistorical patterns to understand fundamental aspects of human nature. For instance, D. K. Simonton identified regularities in which types of ideas become dominant after certain historical events, using data covering 2,500 years. More recently, evolutionary psychology has assumed that certain cross-cultural behavioral regularities are transhistorical because they are rooted in the shared genetic inheritance of all Homo sapiens.
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