"Shaping the Past: the Founding of History as an Aesthetico-Logical Science in the German Enlightenment "

Abstract

"In this paper, I intend to study for the first time the role of demonstrations and fictions as key elements for the scientization of history in the early German Enlightenment. First, I analyze the debate about the role of demonstrative knowledge in the historical narration, with special regard to Thomasius and Heumann. Next, I explore the relationship between the knowledge of historical facts and the epistemology of sensibility, with special regard to Chladenius and the Baumgarten brothers. My conclusion is that history as a science arises out of a concurrence of logical and aesthetic features."