The book is a study of the evolving history of knowledge in the arts and sciences in the modern era
from 1648 through the present. Modernism is treated as an epoch with evolving disciplines whose articulated problems of a time and the inquiry methods to address them, develop in a coordinated manner, given a mutual awareness.
When one organises the development of knowledge over periods of years, and gives it an appellation such as 'Modernism', the organisation of facts is guided by concepts and values discerned throughout these periods. These facts of knowledge development share sufficient understandings to be called an 'era', or an 'epoch', or other terms that insist on the shared aspects of those years. One can call such an effort a 'metahistory', in that what is tracked is not merely a knowledge that is political, economic, ideological, sociological, or scientific, but an overview that tracks the respective conceptual developments of the fields in how they have changed and augmented their problem formulations, inquiry methods, and explanatory conceptions over time.
By:
Mark E. Blum
Imprint: Anthem Press
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions:
Height: 229mm,
Width: 153mm,
Spine: 26mm
Weight: 454g
ISBN: 9781785276989
ISBN 10: 1785276980
Series: Anthem Series on Thresholds and Transformations
Pages: 270
Publication Date: 04 February 2021
Audience:
Professional and scholarly
,
Undergraduate
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active
Introduction; Part I The First Modern Metaparadigm, c.1648–c.1750; Chapter One The First Phase: Seminal Ideation, c.1648–c.1670: The Focus upon Definition and Hypothesis; Chapter Two The Second Phase: Developing a Systematic Theory for Future Inquiry and Problem-Solving c.1670–c.1690; Chapter Three The Third Phase: Material Inquiry into the Verifiability of Specific Concepts, and Conflict over the Implications of the Findings c.1690–c.1720; Chapter Four The Fourth Phase: Integrating the New Four Causal Understandings with the Traditional c.1720–c.1750; Part II The Second Modern Metaparadigm, c.1750–c.1865; Chapter Five The First Phase: Seminal Ideation, c.1750–c.1770: The Focus upon Definition and Hypothesis; Chapter Six The Second Phase: Developing a Systematic Structure for Guiding New Inquiry and Explanation c.1770–c.1790; Chapter Seven The Third Phase: Material Inquiry into the Verifiability of Specific Concepts, and Conflict over the Implications of the Findings c.1790–c.1820; Chapter Eight The Fourth Phase: Integrating the New Four Causal Understandings with the Traditional c.1820–c.1860; Part III The Third Modern Metaparadigm c.1860–c.1960; Chapter Nine The First Phase: Seminal Ideation, c.1860–1870: The Focus upon Definition and Hypothesis; Chapter Ten The Second Phase: Developing a Systematic Structure for Guiding New Inquiry and Explanation c.1870–c.1895; Chapter Eleven The Third Phase: Material Inquiry into the Verifiability of Specific Concepts, and Conflict over the Implications of the Findings c.1890–c.1920; Chapter Twelve The Fourth Phase: Integrating the New Four Causal Understandings with the Traditional c.1920–c.1960; Part IV The Fourth Modern Metaparadigm, c.1970–c.2060; Chapter Thirteen The First Phase: Seminal Ideation, c.1960–1980: The Focus upon Definition and Hypothesis; Chapter Fourteen The Second Phase: Developing a Systematic Structure for Guiding New Inquiry and Explanation c.1970–1990; Chapter Fifteen The Third Phase: Material Inquiry into the Verifiability of Specific Concepts, and Conflict over the Implications of the Findings c.1990–c. 2020; Bibliography; Index.
Mark E. Blum is a professor of European history at the University of Louisville. He has a master's degree in English history from the University of Pennsylvania, and a PhD in Austrian-German history from the University of Pennsylvania. He has published over nine books, several focusing upon the epistemology of human consciousness in its verbal as well as figural foundations.
Reviews for The Metahistory of Western Knowledge in the Modern Era: Four Evolving Metaparadigms, 1648 to Present
Blum's vision is as panoramic as the title suggests, moving freely among fields usually kept separate from Pufendorff to Elfriede Jelinek. The work will stimulate discussion and controversy, as ambitious projects always do. It will interest anyone who values the European tradition of grand meta-historical thinking. Whatever one's verdict on Blum's metaparadigms, it is heartening to see the revival of a genre that had once seemed defunct. - Hans Kellner, Professor of English, Chair of the NCSU Faculty, North Carolina State University, USA
