Abstract

In recent years, international historiography has devoted increasing attention to the concept of transition as a way to describe specific historical times that are characterized by deep and transversal change in every field of political and social life. The category of transition seems to offer an effective tool to investigate and interpret historical time in moments of change, while avoiding the shortcomings of teleological or evolutionist paradigms. We have debated the heuristic value of this category, as well as its limits, with four scholars with different backgrounds: from the history of ideas to law history, from the history of historiography to the historical-philosophical implications of the theories of modernity.