Historicism, Science and the Dangers of Being Useful’

摘要

Oscar Wilde is perhaps an unlikely figure with which to open a discussion of historicism, but he captures succinctly the importance of historical modes of understanding, not merely for their own sake, but for living in the here and now. Wilde offers a helpful corrective to the presentism of our own culture, in which 'historicism,' as the OED notes, is often used as a pejorative term, suggesting an approach weighed down by the baggage of the past, and an inability to respond flexibly to the delights and challenges of the fast-changing contemporary world. In Wilde's view, such flexibility and depth of engagement can only be attained through historically informed modes of understanding. In what appears to be an almost global phenomenon, Humanities scholars are currently being exhorted to change their ways, and to make themselves useful. Social Scientists produce reams of empirical data relating to contemporary issues to justify their existence, but what do the Humanities do. One clear way in which we can make ourselves useful, it is suggested, is by working directly with scientists. For academics in the field of literature and science, this appears on the face of it an attractive proposition, replicating in our own practice the interdisciplinary engagement we track with such enthusiasm in earlier eras. My concern lies, however, in the question of whether in following this path we will necessarily find ourselves loosening our own historical roots, adopting styles of work which tend to side-line historically informed modes of understanding