Philosophy of history

The philosophy of history asks at least these questions:

Unit of study

In Poetics, Aristotle had argued that poetry is superior to history, because poetry speaks of what must or should be true, rather than merely what is true. Accordingly, classical historians felt a duty to ennoble the world. Herodotus and, later, Plutarch freely invented speeches for their historical figures and chose their historical subjects with an eye toward improving the reader. From the Classical period through to the Renaissance, historians alternated between focusing on subjects designed to improve mankind and on a devotion to fact.

Related Topics:
Poetics - Aristotle - Herodotus - Plutarch - Renaissance

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By the 18th century, historians had turned toward focusing on fact as much as possible, but still with an eye on telling histories that could instruct and improve. In the Victorian era, the debate in historiography was not so much whether history was intended to improve the reader, but what causes turned history and how historical change could be understood. Thomas Carlyle argued that history is the biography of a few central individuals, heroes, such as Oliver Cromwell or Frederick the Great. His heroes were political and military figures, the founders or topplers of states. His history of great men, of geniuses good and evil, sought to organize change in the advent of greatness.

Related Topics:
18th century - Victorian era - Thomas Carlyle - Oliver Cromwell - Frederick the Great

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Explicit defenses of Carlyle's position have been rare. Most philosophers of history contend that the motive forces in history can best be described only with a wider lens than the one he used for his portraits.

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Herbert Spencer, for example, wrote, "You must admit that the genesis of the great man depends on the long series of complex influences which has produced the race in which he appears, and the social state into which that race has slowly grown....Before he can remake his society, his society must make him."

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