The Truth of the Criticism: The Historical-critical Method of August Ludwig (von) Schlözer and the Historical Pattern of Judgments

Abstract

The point of departure of this article is the methodological effort of Late Eighteenth-Century Historical Thought which seeks to establish a firm foundation for historical judgments. Here the aim is to (1) analyze how August Ludwig (von) Schlözer (1735-1809) has established a concept of historical truth as a result of his critical method and to (2) identify how this concept of historical truth relates to the contemporary debate about historical representation. By especially considering Schlözer’s interest for forty years in the History of Russia, I argue that the historical-critical method overcomes the methodological procedures of biblical exegesis and humanistic philology already during the last decades of the Eighteenth-Century.