Philosophy of History 3800-PH25-M

Philosophy of history, as a branch of practical philosophy, is one of the most fundamental parts of modern intellectual history. It primarily consists of the reflection on the regularities in history (speculative philosophy of history) and of the inquiries concerning the proper method of historical studies (methodologically-oriented philosophy of history).
In this class, we will pursue a selective, chronological way of presenting the relevant doctrines. We will begin with the Ancient Greco-Roman concept of historical cycles, according to which history has neither a beginning nor an end and is just a circular repetition of analogous epochs. Plato’s generational theory of the change of the forms of government from the Republic will shed light on this subject. Later, we will introduce the Judeo-Christian concept of linear history, in which both the beginning and the end became clearly determined: initially through religious revelation, then through philosophical speculation. To explore this, we will engage with Augustine’s City of God – a work that introduces the concept of the aim of the historical process, at least for the church (understood as the society of true Christians). Such a concept will be key to understanding the philosophy of history - also in the modern era. We will move to it next, observing how it developed a secularized view of historical regularities, stemming from different philosophical subdisciplines (e.g., ethics, teleology, speculative logic), and even non-philosophical sciences (e.g., economics, biology). Beginning with Vico, we will see how the old cyclic concept of history got modernized as a subject of “new science” concerned with human affairs. Vico – in contrast with Plato and Augustine – sees history not only as a product of external forces (universe or God’s providence), but also of human initiative. Herder, Kant, and Hegel will direct us once again on the linear trail, each looking in his own way for the possibility of tracing some progress in history. Those endeavors will be compared with the works of less-known Enlightenment-era feminists from various European nations (e.g., Olympe de Gouges, Amalia Holst, the semi-anonymous Karolina), which will allow us to examine whether the masculine perspective limited the scope of progress-oriented philosophies of history. Subsequently, Cieszkowski will show us that the mainstream Hegelian approach is limited by its concentration on the past and the present, and he will argue that this closes the possibility of substantial contribution to human progress from outside the West. Marx, on the other hand, will stand up as a spokesman of the economically marginalized classes. Wilhelm von Humboldt will be an advocate of the empirical historians, more interested in facts than regularities. The 20th Century marks an important change of the mainstream narrative within Western philosophy: from progressive triumphalism to catastrophism or the pessimistic Marxism of critical theory. Oswald Spengler will employ the biologistic metaphors in his return to the concept of historical cycles – and will proclaim the “decline of the West”; Walter Benjamin will seek inspiration from Judaistic messianism, putting hope in some external, maybe even mystical factor. Finally, our last class will be devoted to the recent philosophical theories of history that are focusing on the problem of the possibility of determining the nature of the end of times: Francis Fukuyama will propose that the liberal democracy is the last stage of human development and Catherine Malabou will look for new ways to make use of the human ability to form new historical aim, the human “plasticity”.

The plan of the semester (each subject corresponds to a single class):
1. Plato, The Republic
2. Augustine, The City of God
3. Giambattista Vico, The New Science
4. Johann Gottfried von Herder, Outlines of a Philosophy of the History of Man (or Oldest Document of Humankind)
5. Immanuel Kant, Conjectural Beginning of Human History, Idea of a Universal History with a Cosmopolitan Aim
6. Immanuel Kant, Anthropology from the Pragmatic Point of View, Third Critique, Lectures on Pedagogy
7. Enlightenment-era feminism (Olympe de Gouges, Amalia Holst, Karolina)
8. G.W.F. Hegel, Elements of the Philosophy of Right
9. G.W.F. Hegel, The Philosophy of World History
10. August Cieszkowski, Prolegomena to Historiosophy
11. Karl Marx, Critique of Hegel’s Philosophy of Right
12. Wilhelm von Humboldt, On the Historian’s Task
13. Oswald Spengler, The Decline of the West
14. Walter Benjamin, Theses on the Philosophy of History
15. Francis Fukuyama, The End of History?; Catherine Malabou, Plasticity: The Promise of Explosion