Fritz Mauthner and the critique of Historicism

Abstract

The article tries to summarise and reinterpret the dimension of language criticism within a tradition of criticising History as science in general and Historicism in particular, which stretches from the 18th century well into the present. In this Fritz Mauthner's works on language criticism are given a central role by the author. Around the turn of the century the philosopher Fritz Mauthner, today largely forgotten if not completely neglected by current historians, formulated a fundamental critique of history as science.