Abstract

BETANCOURT MARTINEZ, Fernando. Theory and History: The Signs of a Transformation. Observations on the Dialogue between Historians. Estud. hist. mod. contemp. Mex [online]. 2006, n.32, pp.103-125. ISSN 0185-2620.

This article attempts to deal with the theoretical implications drawn from the historiographical dialog within disciplinary limits. It has traditionally been thought that these dialogic forms lack interest in the work of clarifying the epistemological bases of historical knowledge. The author attempts to show that, on the contrary, the intersubjective relations mediating in the discussions between historians are crucial to understanding the practical order that determines them. To this end, he introduces the so-called pragmatic approach which, from the philosophy of contemporary sciences, becomes an element that tends to replace the previous epistemological discussion. This approach highlights the communicative nature characteristic of the rationality operating in the disciplinary basis and the demand for contextualization drawn from it. One way of dealing with this demand is found in the concept of regimes of historicity.

Keywords : theory of history; epistemology; intersubjectivity; temporality; heuristics; historicity; paradigm; pragmatics; Thomas S. Kuhn; Jürgen Habermas.