“According to Koselleck, three basic oppositions structure all historical experience. Every possible history is conditioned, first, by before and after, for example the anthropological span between birth and death that makes each life singular and part of a shared experience distinct from other generations, times and experiences. The possibility for new beginnings is as much a part of the human condition as the necessity of death or the ability to kill. Second, all possible history can’t escape the political difference between inner and outer (or, in a conflict, friend or foe). Hence, Koselleck’s repeated critique of the idea that human difference can be morally resolved and not just politically mediated. Only the recognition of difference allows for compromise. Finally, Koselleck claims that the opposition between above and below, ‘master’ and ‘slave’ in the terminology of Hegel and Marx, structures all social relations in history. This isn’t to say that more equality and freedom can’t be gained in the course of events, but that social hierarchies permeate all forms of human community, generating new conflicts and hence new histories.

[…]

The analytical grid that Koselleck suggested as the baseline of his theory of history – before and after, below and above, inner and outer – also conditions historical writing itself. It’s crucial for the viewpoint of historians, whether they are a contemporary or born later, and are thus an eyewitness or a retrospective narrator of events, respectively; whether they are situated higher or lower in social or political terms, for example, whether they are on the side of the winners or losers of the conflict they are describing; and, finally, whether they belong to the political, religious, social or economic community whose history they are writing about, identifying themselves more or less critically with it, or whether they are looking on from outside.”