Abstract:
The introduction to the idea of path dependence and its relevance in development of historical Social Sciences begins from very common concept of history and historicity in narration. Contemporary research on this idea can be considered as part of broader intellectual movement which can be explained as quest for historical social sciences. One of the best descriptions of path dependence, in artistic sense, can be found in this book which is Paul Klee’s famous painting, Angelus Novus. The painting in which the angel gazes with mouth wide open and wings extended on the heap of the ruins of history has attracted many interesting interpretations. One interpretation by Walter Benjamin sees a strong wind blowing from paradise which prevents the angel from closing its wings. The wind drives the angel away from the past towards the future. This wind can be called progress. This interpretation has brought many comments: The landscape that angel sees, changes continuously. Can the journey of the angel through this landscape be conceptualized as path dependency? In certain sense yes, because there is no way it can escape its connection to the past.
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