ABSTRACT
Historical consciousness is the consciousness of historicity: it is all-embracing. At all its stages historical consciousness manifests itself in every cultural objectivation created and absorbed by Togetherness. History as the object of interest is but one manifestation of historical consciousness from amongst many. However, a theory of history has to restrict itself to the analysis of such objectivations that have history as their specific subject matter. It has to examine how (past and present) histories understood themselves in their capacity as histories, how the various stages of historical consciousness have been reflected upon by the understanding of history. Owing to this, a theory of history cannot come to grips directly with historical consciousness, but only with its reflections: it has to reflect on reflections. Should it set the task of analysing historical consciousness before itself, it would be no longer a theory of history, but a theory of culture. Historiog raphy (‘writing history’ in the broader sense of the word) and the philosophy of history are the objectivations proper which aim at the understanding of history. They reflect upon history; the subject matter of their inquiry is history sensu stricto. This is why a theory of history has to deal with them, and not only with the purpose of giving an account of the theoretical procedures, the modes of verification and falsification, the inherent ends of historiography, and the philosophy of history. The theory of history has to understand the roots of various historiographies and philosophies of history as inseparable from the various stages of historical consciousness that they actually express. It has to fathom their function in the life-world of historical periods, their being related to these periods. This is why their structure and the specificity of their message ought to be grasped simultaneously.
