THE PAST, INTELLECTUAL HISTORIES AND THEIR USES FOR THE FUTURE - A RESPONSE TO MIDDLETON AND CROOK (1996)

This paper focuses on an examination of the uses of the past in intell ectual history and in science. Borrowing the concept of symbolic marke t from Pierre Bourdieu, the production of new texts within a discursiv e formation (a la Michel Foucault) is pictured as a process of consump tion-production whose outcomes are attributed a certain value by the c onsumers of the text. This view can be applied both to scientific and to historical products, which have their own independent-even if relat ed-epistemic markets with different criteria for attribution of value, Whatever the case, when events or discourses of the past appear in a current discourse it is because they are of some use as a way of provi ding a narrationality for current and future actions.