is history a science (original) (raw)

The idea of a philosophy of history

Rethinking History: The Journal of Theory and Practice

It has recently been argued that the philosophical study of professional history constitutes a subfield of epistemology. Consequently, the philosophy of history is cast as only one particular species of the general study of the relationship between evidence and theory in scientific practice. This view is based upon an absolute separation between substantive and critical philosophy of history. By such a separation, substantive philosophy of history is dismissed as speculative metaphysics, while critical philosophy of history is vindicated as a respectable branch of epistemology. The attempt to delineate a strictly epistemological realm of history was a central part of the programme for analytically styled philosophy of history in the 1950–1970s era. This programme has been resurrected by contemporary empiricist trends. In this essay, I will argue against the basic ideas of this programme through a reassessment of Hayden White’s so-called narrativist philosophy of history. As I will show, criticizing the distinction between metaphysics and epistemology in history is an essential and important feature of White’s contribution to the philosophy of history. This feature has, I claim, been overshadowed by formalist interpretations of White’s ‘narrativism’. In conclusion, I argue that White’s concept of prefiguration will fundamentally question the viability of current attempts to develop a purely epistemological philosophy of history.

Is there any Philosophy of History? (2019)

Concepts of Normativity: Kant or Hegel? (C. Krijnen, ed.), 2019

Une version française remaniée constitue le chapitre 8 du livre "Explorations allemandes", CNRS Editions, 2019. It is a commonly accepted assumption: a philosophy of history existed ; it peaked, for better or worse, with German Idealism (especially in the works of Kant and Hegel, but also in the work of the latter's heir, Marx). We are to challenge this assumption. Firstly, philosophy of history existed prior to German Idealism (for example in Voltaire, Condorcet...) and partly against Kant’s critical rationalism or Hegel’s speculative one (in Herder and romanticism). Then, the meaning of these two authors' “philosophy of history” is as not as emphatic as it is usually perceived. Its reach is very limited for Kant, and does not belong to the hard kernel of his work (the metaphysics of nature and morals). In Hegel's system, philosophy of history, belonging to the theory of the objective spirit, doesn't have the last word. Its principle, the world spirit, is itself under the jurisdiction of the absolute spirit. Paradoxically, philosophy of history's final object is the present (understood as the eternal presence-to-itself of the spirit). Finally, one may wonder whether “philosophy of history” (as seen by its critics) ever existed.

Can There Be a Credible Philosophy of History?

WISDOM, 2017

A lot of different historical issues were discussed during many centuries. As a result, the philosophy of history was established as an independent academic discipline. However, nowadays there are so many philosophies of history that we have to ask ourselves where this development leads us to, and whether they have anything positive to give to science. The question is as follows: “Can there be a credible philosophy of history?”. Nevertheless, we still need to find out the significance of its credibility. To perform this task, we need to examine the very concept of the philosophy of history and to study the history of the philosophy of history.

History as Philosophy: The Search for Meaning

Histories

One of the reasons for our interest in the past, or history, is our concern for the future, including the future of our planet and its many and varied inhabitants. It has been suggested that “historians are particularly suited” to exploring and teaching about the future. This suggestion recalls earlier ideas of philosophical approaches to the study of history that sought to find patterns or purpose in history. These approaches are associated with ideas of progress and teleological accounts of history more generally. The underlying philosophical approach to history is a broader search for meaning.