Social Sciences in China (Chinese Edition)

No. 7, 2023

Historicity and Existential Events

(Abstract)

Zhao Tingyang

The historical philosophy of the doctrine of the historical founding of the world is based on the three-dimensional concept of historicity. (1) Existential events in the doctrine of creation. The existential approach is used to explain how the structure and order of human civilization is created, i.e. to explain the source of structure/order. This is the original dimension of historicity.  (2) Recursive problems. “Retrospective logic” is used to discover and analyze which problems have recurred throughout history. Such recurring problems must be the fundamental problems of civilization and the source of the drive to perpetuate the unleashing of the events of the creation of the world. This is the retrospective dimension of historicity. (3) The emergence of the significance of history. The meaning of history lies in its futurity; it is the significance of its after-effects and a transmissibility that is founded on the past, the present and the future. Understanding the emergence of meaning in history requires a “causal emergence” approach to analyzing how history shapes transmissibility that carries through to the future. This is the transmission dimension of historicity.