PHILOSOPHICAL ARCHAEOLOGY AS METHOD IN THE HUMANITIES. A COMMENT ON CULTURAL MEMORY AND THE PROBLEM OF HISTORY

Abstract

This article has a twofold scope: I want to suggest that the term “philosophical archaeology” is a methodologically significant concept which is relevant when working historically with the humanities—texts primarily. As a means for this the two most interesting philosophical archaeologists will play a key role: Michel Foucault and Giorgio Agamben. Furthermore, I want to discuss why philosophical archaeology is needed when working critically with what Jan Assmann so famously has defined as cultural memory scholarship. For this purpose Carlo Ginzburg’s concept of, especially, the principle of reality will be discussed lastly where also the difference—or, perhaps, the alleged difference-between law and history, proof and fact will be debated.