A critique of historicism

Abstract

In this paper I consider some of the basic tenets of classic historicism as developed by thinkers such as Dilthey and Spengler, and find serious incoherencies with it as an epistemology. I then inquire as to whether this theory fares better when combined with pragmatism and the “linguistic turn”, as advocated by Richard Rorty, and find that his proposal merely compounds the incoherencies rather than solves them.