The Temporality of History. Structures of the “Political” and Concept of Politics in Reinhart Koselleck

»History always has something to do with time«. Throughout his work, Reinhart Koselleck proposed conceiving of the temporality of history in all its complexity. The aim of Koselleck’s theme of historic temporality is, first and foremost, that of describing the specific temporal dimension of the modern age, in order to discover its difference with the past and its constitution of an epoch of history. One of the most relevant results of Koselleck’s investigation of temporality is the discovery of its plurality. In history, Koselleck explains, there is not just one time, but a plurality of different historical times. Moreover, this plurality is, in its turn, double, as it has to be understood both synchronically and diachronically. How is this synchronic and diachronic plurality of historical times comprehended? Behind it there is certainly a critique of the philosophy of history, which sees the historical process as a unitary dynamic characterised by progress. But how is Koselleck’s rejection of the philosophy of history and its temporal singularity interpreted? With his critique of the temporality of the philosophy of history, does Koselleck intend to reject a unitary concept of historical time at a diachronic level, to wit, that all the events in history can be understood as part of a unique process? Does not the plurality of historical times imply a refusal to see events against the background of a unitary context? In this paper, I argue that the answer to these questions can only be found by analysing the Koselleck’s critique of the »Political« and his conception of Politics.