A brief history of historicity

Abstract

I aim to clarify some characteristics of historicity as a technical term of historiography, as well as a philosophical concept. I would therefore like to present a brief biography of the concept focus on the initial main moments of its conceptualization – in the works of Hegel, Dilthey, Yorck von Wartenburg and Heidegger – while also proposing an analysis on its ontological applicability or metahistorical validity. Following the contributions of Heidegger regarding the understanding of historicity as an ontological structure of existence in general, I argue that this philosophical concept of historicity still has something to teach to the historical-philosophical way thinking. In this sense, finally, I would like to briefly introduce the paradoxical nature of the concept of past as one important logical evidence of what is commonly called the historical or temporal condition of existence, which can be epitomized by the ontological term historicity.