Il futuro degli storici

Starting from a discussion of a recent book by V. Beonio Brocchieri, the essay reflects on the public role and cultural relevance of the historian’s craft in an age characterized by the alleged advent of a «presentist regime of historicity». After observing that an «effacement de l’avenir», in the literal sense, would have deleterious effects on historiography, since belief in the ability of human beings to shape their own future has been an essential feature of the European historical thought since antiquity, the author criticizes a rigidly monistic interpretation of the notion of a «modern» or «futurist regime of historicity», which risks obscuring the intrinsically plural and conflictual character of the correlative «modern concept of history». His central argument is that the crisis of philosophies of history, with their grand finalistic narratives, does not nec- essarily entail the renunciation of any claim to practical utility on the part of historiography. By adopting a non-teleological Weberian approach focused on an empirical genealogy of the present, history is still capable of fulfilling a role as magistra vitae, that is, the civic and political function of equipping human subjects engaged in planning future-oriented actions (res geren- dae) with a realistic knowledge, based on the scientific study of how the world around them came into being and could be reshaped in accordance with their value choices.