The Significance of Terminology for the Idea of a Historical Period - Considerations on Fruhe Neuzeit/Early Modern

摘要

The Significance of Terminology for the Idea of a Historical Period - Considerations on Fruhe Neuzeit/Early Modern. This article focuses on the relationship between the names given to historical periods and the attributed substance of that period. It argues that the possibility of a neutralisation in terms of substantive meaning depends on the terminology used to delineate a historical period. Considering the example of early modern history' the article sketches the usage of that term in twentieth century historiography. While it is clear that the concept cannot escape the inherent teleology of modernity succeeding pre-modern ages, the analysis shows that historians have used early modern' in surprisingly divers ways trying to overcome the semantic meaning of the term itself.