The Origins of the Modern Concept of the Historical Era: Natural Philosophy, Theology, and the Scottish Enlightenment

Tue 6 October

Westminster College

On 6th October at 1pm Dr Sarah Irving-Stonebraker will give a seminar entitled ‘The Origins of the Modern Concept of the Historical Era: Natural Philosophy, Theology, and the Scottish Enlightenment’.

Abstract:

The early modern period witnessed a gradual but profound transformation in how the past was understood in relation to the present. In Renaissance historiography, the past functioned primarily as a repository of analogues and exemplary episodes for moral instruction. By the eighteenth century, however, the past was increasingly conceived in terms of processes that actively shaped, rather than merely preceded, the present. In short, the past came to be understood not merely as exemplary, but as causal.

A key element of this transformation was Scottish Enlightenment historian William Robertson’s pioneering reconceptualisation of the historical era, not simply as a chronological period, but as a distinct phase in history whose characteristic processes shaped subsequent centuries. Robertson formulated this conception by applying concepts of causation drawn from natural philosophy to historical explanation. Employing terms such as general laws, instruments, motions, and effects, Robertson argued that each historical era was structured by a distinctive configuration of secondary causes. The historical era thus became the means by which divine providence operated through the ordinary course of nature and history. In doing so, he offered a striking theological alternative to David Hume’s secular historiography and intervened in eighteenth-century debates over divine action in a law-governed universe. This study helps illuminate the formative, yet insufficiently explored, roles of natural philosophy and theology in shaping the modern understanding of the past as causally related to the present.

A light sandwich lunch will be provided from 12:30pm in the Shasha Suite, Woolf Building, Westminster College, Madingley Road, Cambridge. Please be seated by 12:50pm so that the seminar can start promptly.

Cost: Free