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COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS ON PRE-CLASSICAL, CLASSICAL, AND

RENAISSANCE VIEW ON HISTORICAL CONSCIOUSNESS

This analysis focuses on the different views on historical consciousness, which were
collected from different resources. This includes the pre-classical, classical, and renaissance
views on historical consciousness, also termed as historicism. The author of this analysis
gathered relevant journal articles and research to gather information and identify similarities and
differences. This enables us to grasp how historical consciousness has been conceived
throughout history. The aim of this analysis is to shed light on the mystery of its various
paradigms. The Renaissance perspective on historical consciousness is more comprehensive than
the pre-classical and classical perspectives. The Renaissance view focused more on the specific
definition, while the other views are much more complex because they focus on the functions
and experiences, which I find complicated to fully grasp the meaning.

As we begin the analysis, let's define first historical consciousness since it will be the
focus of our comparative analysis. Glencross (2015) defines historical consciousness as the
awareness of the historical experience or how the past, present, and future are perceived to be
related. Further, it is the ability to connect a person's past, present, and future. To put it simply,
historical consciousness is all about the awareness of one’s own history and knowing how to
relate this to the present. Being historical-aware is being knowledgeable about the occurrences in
the past and how these past events are connected to the present and future. Historical
consciousness is the cognizance of what actually occurred and the notion that the present is
linked to the past (Grever, 2019). An individual who becomes aware of any past in the present is
dynamic and constantly changing, both on collective and individual levels, and is usually
referred to as' historical consciousness.’ The Renaissance view on historical consciousness was
also embraced by this viewpoint. The medieval era came to an end during the Renaissance, when
modernity replaced the medieval lifestyle. We reconstitute historical occurrences from the
Renaissance as we move into the present era.

In this part of the analysis, we will be exploring the Renaissance view on historical
consciousness. The Renaissance, which is the resurgence of classical knowledge and wisdom,
signifies rebirth. The Renaissance era does not give up the past, but it does pave the way for the
early modern era. We cannot deny that the Renaissance period had a significant impact on the
contemporary age. The view of the Renaissance on historical consciousness is similar to earlier
ideas. They believe that the past and present are inextricably linked.

From this perspective, we conclude that the past and present are deeply connected. In the
view of the Renaissance, our culture was shaped by people from the past who had linkages to the
present. Delanty (2019) claims in his journal article that the Renaissance encompasses some
cultural aspects of what is now more frequently known as the early modern era. These cultural
aspects are still present today. It asserts that the current modern era was influenced by past
events and is merely a development of them. The renaissance of museums implies that the
historic turn is not limited to academia. The historical turn emphasizes historical processes as
well as historical context. The historic turn implies a growing understanding of history as a
substantive area of intellectual inquiry as well as a growing understanding of history as a
significant setting for a wide range of complex social and symbolic interaction. We can learn
from past mishaps and improve our capacity to make impartial decisions by learning from
history. More specifically, historical consciousness generated a positive approach that used the
lessons of the past to develop strategies for acting on them in the present with the intention of
making a difference to become better.

Moreover, the core part of historicism is the replacement of a generalizing view of human
forces in history for an individual perspective (Schiffman, 1980). Each person has their own
viewpoints and experiences from the past, and the contexts of those perspectives vary. It implies
that historical consciousness is an individual's outlook rather than the stance of a group. As
previously stated, historical consciousness refers to a person's view of historical events. People
perceived that historical consciousness was the awareness of historical events shaping the
present. The idea that events from 100 years ago were predestined and shaped current events is
an example of this. Each individual human being is indescribable and might be viewed as a
process of growth.

So much for that, the union of the concepts of individuality and development resulted in
historicism. With the support of these arguments, we can corroborate Meinecke's assertion that
the birth of historicism or historical consciousness emerged from the fusion of an unwavering
faith in the essential unity of all value with a complete appreciation of uniqueness. In other
words, every person has a big influence on how history is made. The consciousness of
individuality in the historicist sense is implied by the awareness of the past as a continuity of
distinct historical entities. Most of the renaissance view on historical consciousness are similar.

Another author substantiated in his article entitled "Renaissance Historicism

reconsidered" that the history of historiography is concerned with historical consciousness. He
regarded it as the changing ways of viewing the past and its relationship to the present. They
simply employed a different concept, but it had the same meaning as the other ideas. The
relationship between the past and the future is a key element of this viewpoint. Yet he made
modifications. It indicates that people's perspectives on the past are evolving. The author sees the
nineteenth-century historical consciousness as a "continuation, an intensification" of renaissance
historiography.

In their view of historical consciousness, it is said that humanity existed as a bridge from
the higher man to the present. Higher man learns from history in order to compete in the present.
The rise of everything in the present is reflected in historiography, which leads to development.
As we try to understand the concept, there are patterns to this approach. The first is an
understanding and awareness of historical events; the second is that people's perspectives on
these events are evolving; and finally, it leads to progress. The Renaissance period became the
last door to the modern era and its history has really impacted the present.

Understanding the Renaissance will help us better understand how clearly distinct the
classical conceptions of historical consciousness are. It is very different from the earlier views.
According to the classic meaning of historical consciousness, which differs from the ideas
presented above, historical consciousness is a mode of analysis in which "all of our thoughts
about man, his culture, and his values are fundamentally historically oriented. We can
comprehend that all of these phenomena are part of shaping history to embrace not only the past,
present, but also the future. Culture and values become historical.

According to Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, a famous classical German philosopher, history

was defined by an increase in spiritual self-awareness. Therefore, historical consciousness is
related to spiritual self-awareness, which is the driving force behind history. Thus, historical
consciousness refers to the awareness that history is a manifestation of spirit rather than a
perception of the presence and characteristics of an objective past. It is getting more complex
because it involves another variable, which is the spirit. In the classical view, the definition
become vague or needs more details. Karl Max, with its historical dialects, was also a type of
historical consciousness (Ahonen, 2006). The classical view included his point of view as well. It
makes the claim that it is a human-made reflection of the natural world. It contends that the
conflict of social forces brought on by man's material demands is what causes political and
historical events. It has something to do with the historical materialism.

In the 19th century, historical consciousness had many meanings, and it is more complex.
Hegel's conception of it is speculative and metaphysical. He sees it as a natural outgrowth of the
process of history, the means by which the world may realize itself in self-consciousness as
spirit, for him, a determinate necessity by which humankind is actualized. Nietzsche equates it
with a sense of generational and moral obligation. Seeing obligation as leading only to guilt
consciousness, he advises that we discard it. Heidegger incorporates the historic into general
consciousness and defines it as the capacity to see history as a "recurrence of the possible." He
sees the historically conscious as preoccupied with approaches to the past and theories for
understanding and expressing it.

In the Renaissance age, the term generally means a special kind of knowledge, or a
distinctly historical way of thinking and becoming aware. Consciousness is also emphasized—
meaning (generally) consciousness of the act of thinking historically. Attempting to understand
the nature of historically conscious thinking, most of the major writers in this field study
"classical" works and their writers to describe specific manifestations of consciousness and
modes of thinking. Commonly, they evaluate historical assessment and explanation, the
construction of histories, and the development of historical philosophies. Focused less on the
type of thinking and more on how historical consciousness is experienced and functions, one
major work and many articles explore the phenomenology of historical consciousness.

George Iggers' The German Conception of History: The National Tradition of Historical
Thought, discusses the "theoretical presuppositions and political values" of German historians.
Through his investigation of these, Iggers evaluates changing forms of consciousness from
Herder to the present. He discusses historical consciousness only in terms of its manifestation-
the form that it assumes in certain modern German scholars and without defining the term. By
not specifying his understanding of it, Iggers allows the reader to approach his work with the
common conception of historical consciousness: that is a special sort of thinking. As Louis Mink
remarks, however, "positing historicity...does not give the differentiae of specifically historical
understanding." What precisely does it mean to think historically or to have historical
understanding? To what exactly are we referring when we speak of historical knowing? What
specifically does the term 'historical consciousness,' a term frequently considered synonymous
with any or all of the above, mean? There are various answers.

Due to the fact that they represent the formation of historical events that would have a
considerable impact, pre-classical and classical viewpoints have multiple meanings in historical
consciousness. I prefer the Renaissance view because it was precisely defined and explained. It is
simpler to understand than the classical viewpoint. I was having trouble understanding because it
seemed that conventional viewpoints had a vague interpretation of this. There are more
conceptions, but they are described unclearly. From the text above, you can notice that classical
views are difficult to comprehend.

References:

Adriannesen, R. (n.d). Historical Consciousness. Bloomsbury Publishing. DOI:

10.5040/9781350927926.113

Ahonen, S. (2006). Historical Consciousness: A viable paradigm for history education?. Pp. 697-
707. Doi.org/10.1080/00220270500158681.
Burke, P. (1970). The Renaissance sense of the past (Documents of Modern History) (Book
Review). 7 (1). ProQuest.

Glencross, A. (2015). From “Doing History” to thinking historically: Historical consciousness

across history and international relations. 29 (4). Https://doi.org/10.1177/0047117815608233

Greenberg, D. (1991). Metahistory of the everyday. Historical Consciousness in Lived Existence

(Set in Late Eighteen Century Britain).

Fullerton, R. (1987). Historicism. NA Advances in Consumer Research Volume. Association for

Consumer Research. Https://www.acrwebsite.org/volumes/6732

Repina, L. (2016). Renaissance world view and historical consciousness in Michael.

Barg’s interpretation. Institute of world history. 26 (10), pp. 17-24.

Http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/17496977.2015.1032130

Delanty, G. (2019). The Renaissance and the Rise of European Consciousness: A Historical and
Political Sociology of Europe. DOI.10.1007/978-3-319-95435-6_6

Schiffman, Z (1980). The Nature of Selfhood: Montaigne and Renaissance Historical

Consciousness. The University of Chicago

Schiffman, Z. (1985). Renaissance Historicism Reconsidered. 24 (2), pp. 170-182.

Https://doi.org/10.2307/2505280