THE PHILOSOPHY OF HISTORY

Meaning of Philosophy

• Philosophy refers to the search for knowledge and understanding of the nature and meaning of the reality of the universe.
• It seeks to explain phenomena that cannot be subjected to direct observations.
• Philosophy aims to create “a coherent image of the world” and an alluring picture of the good.
• It is the pursuit of truth, beauty, goodness, and justice – the ultimate realities.
• Philosophy is an ahypothetical interpretation of the unknown.
• It is the study of realities, general principles, systems of theories about the nature of things, doctrines of ideas, causality, natural laws, behavior patterns, regularities, and the direction of development.
• Philosophy examines the relationship between ideas and actual things.
• In essence, philosophy is an examination of appearance and reality, shadow and substance in order to understand the nature of the universe and the meaning of human life.

What is Philosophy of history?

• The phrase “Philosophy of history” refers to the historical explanation of historical happenings.
• This expression has changed its meaning and sense over time since its development.
• There are at least four different meanings of the term “philosophy of history”:
  1. It relates to the fundamental assumptions a historian makes regarding particular historical processes like causation, progress, etc.
  2. It means historical methodology and the actual process of historical research and writing.
  3. It is concerned with high-level theorizing about the fundamental currents of history.
  4. It means the discovery of general laws governing the course of events narrated by history.
• The concept of philosophy of history is interpreted by Western thinkers in different ways.
• Dionysius of Halicarnassus set the ball rolling with his famous remark that “History is philosophy drawn from examples” referring to actual life situations, not imaginary concoctions.
• Voltaire, the inventor of the expression “philosophy of history”, meant scientific history based upon critical analysis—a type of historical thinking where the historian forms their own views instead of repeating earlier narratives.
• Heinrich Rickert claims three meanings to the term “philosophy of history”:
  1. Universal history.
  2. The doctrines of the principles of historical affairs.
  3. The logic of historical science, which refers to the doctrine of the methods and forms of thinking unrelated to concrete empirical material.
• Although these three meanings seem to be diametrically different, they are based on a common foundation, which is the universal principles of historical being.