ABSTRACT
Language plays a crucial role in our understanding of the past. We read and hear about historical events, and thereby learn what has once happened at a specific time and place. In this chapter, I argue that historical understanding can operate through a particular form of empathy. However, what is significant about this empathy is not that we share the feelings, thoughts and beliefs of historical characters. What matters instead is that we let the language of historical authors speak to us, so that we can feel ourselves into the situation represented through their narratives. The precise meaning of this claim will be illustrated through an analysis of Herder’s concept of Einfühlung: a capacity that is cognitive, in the sense that it requires an understanding of the concepts that form the relevant historical narrative, and yet counts as affectively responsive in that it enables us to react with feelings to historical narratives. Of particular importance in this context is Herder’s claim that emotions function as the ground from which new conceptual resources and a new understanding of specific factual constellations in the world can arise.
