The topic of this project lies at the intersection of philosophy, cultural history and, to some extent, history of literature and art. Its starting point is the thesis that making historical promises – i.e. describing a future state of society/humanity based on an explanation of what has lead to their current situation – has been the very driving force of modern philosophy. But this is a project of cultural history because, instead of focusing on the conceptual content of modern philosophy, it attempts:
a) to clarify the role that modern philosophy – as a philosophy of promise – has assumed within the cultural space of modern society and to distinguish the structure of its promissory work from other kinds of cultural promises in modern societies, such as the promises of societal change made by certain avant-garde movements;
b) to determine why contemporary philosophy has drifted away from the historical promissory work that had undergirded its discourse for almost two centuries.