A hermeneutical investigation of historical and language apriority

Abstract

© 2019, University of Belgrade - Institute for Philosophy and Social Theory. All rights reserved. Based on the strict immanent, hermeneutical-phenomenological interpretation of literature and philosophy, the paper is an attempt to make a connection between the ideas of language and history such as they appear in Peter Handke’s poetological essay Ich bin ein Bewohner des Elfenbeinturms and his literary work Die Fahrt im Einbaum oder das Stück zum Film vom Krieg, on one side, and Immanuel Kant’s idea of history a priori in his essays on anthropology and philosophy of history, on the other side. According to Kant’s anthropology and philosophy of history a priori, which is possible when the one who predicts history makes and arranges history in advance, the idea of apriority of language in Handke’s poetological work presents the language as some sort of an a priori frame which forms the pictures of history and reality of subjects in advance, such as the history a priori in his literary work is obvious when the hidden creator of history exists before the history itself and arranges it in advance. The idea of philosophical and language apriority developed in this paper is a wide, all inclusive frame which gives a wide platform for proper understanding and interpreting of all philosophies of history without exception.