Unproofing expectations: confronting partial pasts and futures

Abstract

To start: I thank the responding authors for their generosity and thoughtfulness in engaging in this debate about ‘Attending to unproof: an archaeology of possibilities’ (Frieman 2024) and also the journal's editors for facilitating this discussion.

To continue: here are two grounding principles for this response. First, in the spirit of many pasts and encouraging a flourishing of approaches to our study of them, I will not quibble where I see small disagreements or misinterpretations; each of the responses should be read as an important contribution to our evolving methodologies. Second, I will emphasise, as I did throughout the opening article (Frieman Reference Frieman2024), that I am endeavouring to conduct a political intervention, since our writings of the past powerfully impact the present and shape the future into which we are hurtling. Show more