ABSTRACT
In a historicized world history happens fi rst. No activity exists that isn’t already historicized, that hasn’t got to be the way it is.1 A historical phase is, therefore, no longer a structure of meaning recognized only after its ‘form of life has grown old’ (cf. Hegel 1967: 17). Rather, any activity not already historicized can’t exist. A historically hyperconscious humanity becomes mesmerized by its own self-historicization: the past always present, the latest thing the same old thing. This situation puts historians and historical knowledge particularly in the spotlight. The historicized world makes history not just central, but self-centred. History can’t but offer “indispensable” knowledge. Consequently, the historian producing it convinces himself that his is a privileged cognitive function with a special social relevance. This conceit represents a crucial, ideological affi rmation of historyfocussed thinking and behaviour. Typically, it’s evinced in the presumption by historians that their social function is ethically exemplary and, for that very reason, bears responsibilities unique to themselves.
