Juhan Hellerma joins the Friedrich-Meinecke-Institute as a research fellow funded by the Estonian Research Council. His research focuses on contemporary philosophy of history and related topics such as temporality, the Anthropocene, and presentism. In his doctoral thesis defended in 2020 at the University of Tartu, he studied, among others, Reinhart Koselleck’s theory of historical time. He has also worked extensively on the sociological philosophy of Hartmut Rosa. In his earlier studies, Juhan became interested in phenomenology, focusing on the thought of Edmund Husserl.

During his doctoral studies, Juhan conducted research at Würzburg University, Wesleyan University and Yale University. Before arriving in Berlin, he was employed as a research fellow at the University of Tallinn.

Renegotiating the Value of Presentism

My current project engages with the recent interest in presentism among historians and philosophers of history by providing an overview of relevant intellectual history, synthesizing current discourse on presentism, and framing an original critique of the term. Presentism has traditionally carried a negative connotation, as studying the past through the lens of the present can distort historical understanding. Today, presentism is subjected to a significantly broader and more inclusive discourse. Accordingly, the question no longer is whether we should accept presentism, but rather how to discriminate between legitimate and illegitimate forms of presentism. Building on the analysis of the latter discourse, the project also sheds light on how issues of presentism manifest at a broader societal level, such as through initiatives to remove and revise problematic symbols and monuments of the past. In addition, the project explores presentism as a temporal strategy that may undermine long-term thinking, which is especially relevant in the context of the climate crisis.

Making the Past Speak: Acceleration, Resonance, and Presence, History and Theory, 63:2 (2024), 288−299. https://doi.org/10.1111/hith.12339

History on the Move: Reimagining Historical Change and the (Im)possibility of Utopia in the 21st Century, Journal of the Philosophy of History, 15:2 (2020), 249−262. https://doi.org/10.1163/18722636-12341442

Koselleck on Modernity, Historik, and Layers of Time, History and Theory, 59:2 (2020), 188−209. https://doi.org/10.1111/hith.12154

Negotiating Presentism: Toward a Renewed Understanding of Historical Change, Rethinking History, 24:3-4 (2020), 442−464. https://doi.org/10.1080/13642529.2020.1848132