German Idealism develops its philosophy of history as the theory of becoming absolute and as absolute knowledge. Historism also originates from Hegel's and Schelling's discovery of absolute historicity as it turns against Idealism's philosophy of history by emphasizing the singular and unique in the process of history. German Idealism and Historism can be considered as the central German contribution to the history of ideas. Since Idealism became most influential for modern philosophy and Historism for modern historiography, they are analyzed in this volume in a collaboration of philosophers and historians. German Idealism is presented in Schelling and its critics Schlegel, Baader, and Nietzsche; Historism in Ranke, Droysen, Burckhardt, and Treitschke. The volume further presents the impact of Idealism and Historism on present German approaches to the philosophy of history and outlines the debates on the possibility of a philosophy of history and on the methodology of the historical sciences.

Inhalt
German Idealism's Philosophy of History and its Contemporary Critique.- Schlegel's Theory of History and his Critique of Idealistic Reason.- History as the Control of Speculation: Schelling's Discovery of History and Baader's Critique of Absolute Historicity.- Absolute Historicity, Theory of the Becoming Absolute, and the Affect for the Particular in German Idealism and Historism: Introduction.- The Theory of History in German Historism.- Leopold von Ranke.- Droysen and Nietzsche: Two Different Answers to the Discovery of Historicity.- Philosophy of History and Theory of Historiography in Jacob Burckhardt.- Historiography as Political Activity: Heinrich von Treitschke and the Historical Reconstruction of Politics.- Literary Criticism and Historical Science: The Textuality of History in the Age of Goethe and Beyond.- Social and Philosophical Theory in the 19th Century German Thought.- German Theory and Philosophy of History Today.- Philosophy of History After the End of the Formative Substantial Philosophy of History: Remarks on the Present State of the Philosophy of History.- Why Kant's Reflections on History Still Have Relevance.- Rehabilitating the Philosophy of History.- History and Subjectivity The Relevance of a Philosophical Concept of History in the Kantian Tradition.- Towards a New Theory-Based History of Historiography.- Philosophy of History After the Philosophy of History: Toward a Cultural History with Historical-Philosophical Background.