The future and history: analysis of contemporary temporality

Abstract

At the late twentieth century, humanity’s assurance of the unity and direction of knowledge was shaken. In this context, since the 1970s the writing of history has been in a crucial moment and it is noticeable that historiography has been losing ground in society. “Presentism”, an effect of the collapse of the idea of a future and of the concept of linear and progressive time, involves a new approach to the historical past and requires a production of knowledge that is more relevant to the present-day. Informed by the contemporary philosophy and theory of history, we set out to investigate what role could be played by historiography in this emerging structure of temporality. In this proposal, historians see themselves as mediators of our relation to past events, thus bridging the past, the present and the future.