Does the End of Herder's Auch Eine Philosophie Der Geschichte Zur Bildung Der Menschheit Represent a Conclusion?

Abstract

This article aims to demonstrate that the stylistic and other formal aspects of Herder's Auch eine Philosophie der Geschichte, including punctuation and typography, reflect the text's ambition to reproduce within its own structural framework the structure of history that the text itself defends. Herder's concept of ‘Fortgang’, which he sets against the ‘Aufklarung’ notion of ‘Fortschritt’, informs the textual structure – three cycles of history corresponding to the three ‘Abschnitte’– and imposes a textual and rhetorical structure that is at the same time cyclical and linear. Thus the author strives to avoid imposing a teleological structure on the text, given that his own vision of history emphasised the notion of successivity to the detriment of the role of progress. Herder draws on the Judaeo-Christian tradition which sees the world as a text written by God in the supreme performative speech-act of the Creation to draw a parallel between the textual structure and the unfolding of history. His refusal to provide a conclusion to the text is thus consistent, given that any such conclusion could only be written retrospectively after the end of time.