ABSTRACT
The idea that we have roots in human activity similar to our own, rather than in myth, seems to be intrinsic to modern secular culture. That is what we mean by history, and I will call it a ‘historical consciousness’. Historical consciousness acknowledges the reality of the past as a culture in its own right, and historical enquiry proceeds objectively and empirically. Nonetheless, the urge for historical knowledge is also driven by a wish to go back, to get to and be at the beginning, as if it were a wish that could be fulfilled.
