Reinhart Koselleck on Critique and Crisis

TODAY IN PHILOSOPHY OF HISTORY: Reinhart Koselleck on Critique and Crisis

Wednesday 23 April 2025 is the 102nd anniversary of the birth of Reinhart Koselleck (23 April 1923 to 03 February 2006), who was born in Görlitz, Germany on this date one hundred two years ago.

Koselleck’s first book, Critique and Crisis: Enlightenment and the Pathogenesis of Modern Society, analyzed the social and political milieu of pre-revolutionary France in terms of a rising bourgeoisie shut out of power by royal absolutism. Progressivist philosophy of history played a crucial role in the French Revolution as an ideology used to critique absolutism and to advance the fortunes of the bourgeoisie. But the Achilles heel of progressivist philosophy of history was its utopian character, which it developed precisely because it was developed in isolation from the exercise of political power.

Quora: https://philosophyofhistory.quora.com/
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Podcast: https://open.spotify.com/episode/6OUHfux0Oq1OdY0MkNY38I?si=y0_C_JuCSfSyiZM1UgByTA

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