Abstract
This paper focuses on an examination of the uses of the past in intellectual history and in science. Borrowing the concept of symbolic market from Pierre Bourdieu, the production of new texts within a discursive formation (a la Michel Foucault) is pictured as a process of consumption-production whose outcomes are attributed a certain value by the consumers of the text. This view can be applied both to scientific and to historical products, which have their own independent-even if relatedepistemic 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 providing a narrationality for current and future actions.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
