Historical Studies (Chinese Edition)

No.3, 2015

 

The Conflict of the Faculties at the Time of J.G. Droysen: With a Comment on the Birth of Modern German Historiography

(Abstract)

 

Lü Heying

 

At the time of J.G. Droysen, the modern humanities were taking shape, and “conflicts of the faculties” were frequently played out. In the early 19th century, the relationship between philology and historiography was very close, and modern German historiography came into being on the basis of philological paradigms; however, as the two disciplines developed their own professional identities, they drew further and further apart. Hegel had also leveled sharp criticisms at some of the new humanities disciplines, urging that in addition to “textual criticism,” they should pay more attention to the educational function of texts. To argue for the scientific nature of their activities, philologists and historians counterattacked.  Droysen  critically inherited philological theory and Hegelian Geistesphilosophie, thereby challenging old-style historiographic theories and laying a methodological foundation for modern German historiography. In his later years, owing to generational change and paradigm shifts, “conflicts of the faculties” continued to spread.