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NARRATIVE LOGIC A Semantic Analysis of the Historian’s Language

by F.R. ANKERSMIT

1983 MARTINUS NIJHOFF PUBLISHERS

THE HAGUE/ BOSTON/ LONDON

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Distributors: for the United States and Canada Kluwer Boston, Inc. 190 Old Derby Street Hingham, MA 02043 USA for all other countries Kluwer Academic Publishers Group Distribution Center P.O. Box 322 3300 AH Dordrecht The Netherlands Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Ankersmit, F. R. Narrative logic. (Martinus Nijhoff philosophy library ; v. 7) Bibliography: p. Includes indexes. Historiography. 2. History—Philosophy. I. Title. II. Series. D13.A64 1983 907’.2 82-18791 ISBN 90-247-2731-6

ISBN 90-247-2731-6 (this volume)

ISBN 90-247-2344-2 (series)

Copyright ©1983 by Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, The Hague All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher. Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, P.O. Box 566, 2501 CN The Hague, The Netherlands. PRINTED IN THE NETHERLANDS

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To WILLIAM HENRY WALSH whose ideas ‘colligate’ the essentials of this book

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CONTENTS INTRODUCTION 7 CHAPTER I. PRELIMINARIES 11 (1) Introductory remarks 11 (2) Objections to psychologism 16 (3) The narratio and the historical novel 22 (4) Terminology 29 CHAPTER II. THE IDEAL NARRATIO 31 (1) The narratio answers all questions 31 (2) The pragmatist’s proposal 33 (3) The simplest narratio 36 (4) The CLM-ist’s proposal 37 (5) Mink’s proposal 47 (6) The completeness proposal 49 (7) The archivist’s proposal 51 (8) The essentialist’s proposal 51 (9) Conclusion 56 CHAPTER III. THE SENTENCE AND THE NARRATIO 57 (1) Introduction 57 (2) The sentence and the narratio 58 (3) Can narratios be (un)true? (I) 61 (4) Can narratios be (un)true?(II) 64 CHAPTER IV. NARRATIVE IDEALISM VERSUS NARRATIVE REALISM 75 (1) Introduction 75 (2) The past has no narrative structure 75 (3) “Seeing as...” in historiography 82 (4) Conclusion 86 CHAPTER V. NARRATIVE SUBJECTS AND NARRATIVE SUBSTANCES 90 (1) Narrative subjects and narrative substances 90 (2) First objection 97 (3) Second objection 98 (4) Third objection 101 (5) Fourth objection 105 (6) Accounting for change: narrative substances as subjects of change 111 (7) A fundamental thesis of narrative logic 124 CHAPTER VI. THE NATURE OF NARRATIVE SUBSTANCES 129

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(1) Leibniz and narrativist philosophy 129 (2) Types 142 (3) Do narrative substances refer? 155 (4) Narrative substances and identity 164 CHAPTER VII. NARRATIVE SUBSTANCES AND METAPHOR 181 (1) Natural regularities as rules for the construction of narrative substances 181 (2) Legislation for statements or for narratios? 183 (3) Metaphor 191 (4) “Scope” 201 (5) Conclusion 206 CHAPTER VIII. EXPLANATION AND OBJECTIVITY IN HISTORY AND NARRATIVE SUBSTANCES 208 (1) Some general remarks on explanation 208 (2) Historical explanation 211 (3) Some general remarks on subjectivity and objectivity 214 (4) Subjectivity and objectivity in history 215 CONCLUSION 226 BIBLIOGRAPHY 230 INDEX OF NAMES 236 INDEX OF SUBJECTS 238