THE CONTENT OF THE NARRATIVE

Serge Grigoriev

History and Theory 65, no. 1 (2026)

Review of The Exemplifying Past: A Philosophy of History, by Chiel van den Akker (Amsterdam University Press, 2018).

In The Exemplifying Past: A Philosophy of History, Chiel van den Akker presents a compelling argument for understanding historical narrative as an instrument of historical cognition rather than as a literary device or an artifact. In the first part of this review essay, I present and explicate van den Akker's sophisticated and lucid account of the content of the narrative as that which comes into view when we adopt the thesis (or perspective) embodied in the composition of the narrative (considered in its entirety). In the second part, I raise some questions concerning van den Akker's attempt to express the resulting conception of the narrative and its meaning in terms borrowed from the analytic philosophy of language, giving rise to what van den Akker calls a “pragmatist theory of narrative truth.” This second part of the essay concludes by suggesting two alternative (potentially simpler) formulations of the pertinent semantic and pragmatic distinctions and relationships that may be worth exploring or evaluating alongside van den Akker's original proposal. I conclude this review essay by questioning whether a sustained engagement with philosophy of language in general constitutes a necessary (or even a promising) way to advance our understanding of cognitive problems in the philosophy of history.