Abstract
In the present paper, I intend to analyse Alexander Gottlieb Baumgarten's conception of history. Investigating the various passages in which Baumgarten deals with history, I argue for its relevance both for Baumgarten's philosophy and for the intellectual history of the German Enlightenment. The essay is divided into three parts: in the first section, I examine Baumgarten's theory of history, so as to interpret it within the coeval debate. In the second section, I look at Baumgarten's activity as a militant historian during the Seven Years' War, commenting upon his work Zur alten Geschichte des Vaterlandes which has hitherto escaped scholars' attention. In the last section, I show the mutual influence of history and aesthetics, insofar as history constitutes a crucial subject for the beautiful mind, while aesthetics enables the historian to come to terms with the fictitious facticity of the past. (English)