Historical Consciousness in the Focus of Sociological Enquiry

Abstract

This article attempts to elaborate a theory of historical consciousness which could apply to the area of empirical sociological enquiry. Its essential idea is that it is possible to view historical consciousness as an "entity" shaped by the interplay of four components: a) lived historical experience (lived personally, eventually transmitted through interpersonal contact), b) ideology, particularly state ideology and ideology of political parties, c) knowledge produced by historiography and historical science, d) collective memory.

Keywords

• Historical consciousness
• collective memory
• lived historical experience
• ideology
• historical science.