Beyond instrumental rationality: historical meaning and rationality in Rüsen’s theory of history

Abstract

Meaning is a central concept in contemporary historical discourse. How meaning is understood has crucial consequences for the use of history, the possibilities of historical orientation and the risks of instrumentalizing history. This article explains the meaning of the concept of meaning in Jörn Rüsen’s theory of history, and argues that his perspective on meaning provides a more promising alternative than objectivism and relativist constructivism with regard to historical orientation and instrumentalism. In order to explain Rüsen’s concept of meaning, different concepts of meaning are distinguished. A significant distinction is made between meaning as constitution and meaning as representation. Several different aspects of Rüsen’s concept of meaning are then articulated. Against this background,the concept of rationality of meaning is explained and opposed both to constructivism and its inherenttendency to instrumentalism, and to the tendency to objectify meaning in empirical analyses of historicalconsciousness.