Opacity and Transparency in Historical Representations

Abstract

In his latest book Frank Ankersmit develops a comprehensive philosophical perspective on the problem of the truth and reference of historical representations. The approach and the wider perspective of the book largely belong to what could be called the postmodernist paradigm, in spite of some recent attempts to interpret Ankersmit’s recent work differently.

Since his 1983 Narrative Logic Ankersmit has propounded the view that individual statements that constitute historical representations may have reference, but that representations themselves do not. This most recent book remains faithful to this position and elaborates it further. This essay examines Ankersmit’s arguments as well as the assumptions and implications of this view.