Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- I Society and law
- II European society and its law
- III International society and its law
- 10 The concept of international law
- 11 International law and the idea of history
- 12 Intergovernmental societies and the idea of constitutionalism
- 13 International law and the international Hofmafia. Towards a sociology of diplomacy
- 14 International law and international revolution. Reconceiving the world
- Index of names
- Index of subjects
11 - International law and the idea of history
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 30 July 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- I Society and law
- II European society and its law
- III International society and its law
- 10 The concept of international law
- 11 International law and the idea of history
- 12 Intergovernmental societies and the idea of constitutionalism
- 13 International law and the international Hofmafia. Towards a sociology of diplomacy
- 14 International law and international revolution. Reconceiving the world
- Index of names
- Index of subjects
Summary
The future of the human world will be a product of its present state. The present state of the human world is a product of its past states. In our continuous present we tell and retell the story of our past. But the writing of history is a dangerous occupation. In seeming to tell us what we have been, it seems to tell us what we are, and so to tell us what we can be and even what we will be. The fact that we cannot see what we have been except through the eyes of what we are means that we are always in the process of making the past. It means also that the writing of history is also a history of the writing of history. Past historiography is part of the history of the past.
A central temptation of historiography is to claim that it is a human science, uncovering the nature of human nature and human nature's laws. Human existence and human behaviour are facts as much as any other fact of the material universe, so surely there must be the possibility of discovering a human ontology at least as soundly based as the consensual ontology of the natural sciences and a human metaphysics at least as soundly based as the consensual metaphysics of the physical sciences. We have reason to believe, in the light of the long history of historiography, that such a claim is unjustified. The laws of human nature exceed the hypothetical power of the human mind.[…]
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Health of NationsSociety and Law beyond the State, pp. 316 - 341Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2002