Anthropocenic historical knowledge: promises and pitfalls

Abstract

In the form of a conversational exchange of ideas, Ewa Domańska, Zoltán Boldizsár Simon and Marek Tamm reflect on the condition and role of historical knowledge in the Anthropocene. In the conversation on the potential of ‘anthropocenic historical knowledge’–including the limitations and use of the term–each author offers and elaborates on one main theme for discussion, on which the other two co-authors reflect: Tamm begins by posing the question of the extension of ‘the territory of the historian’, Simon takes on the challenge by calling for the development of a ‘scientific literacy’, and Domańska pulls the threads together by advocating ‘anticipatory knowledge’. In the conversation, each author reflects on all three themes that they present as fundamental tenets of a renewed historical knowledge attuned to the Anthropocene predicament.