Philosophy of History: A Guide for Students

by Lemon; M.C.

• ISBN13: 9780415162050
• ISBN10: 041516205X
• Format: Nonspecific Binding
• Copyright: 2003-06-09
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

This work is an essential introduction to the vast body of writing about history, from classical Greece and Rome to the contemporary world. M.C. Lemon maps out key debates and central concepts of philosophy of history placing principal thinkers in the context of their times and schools of thought. Lemon explains the crucial differences between speculative philosophy as an n enquiry into the course and meaning of history and analytic philosophy of history as relating to the nature and methods of history as a discipline. After providing a guide to the principal thinkers from pre-historical times to the present, the book goes on to present a critical summary of the leading issues raised by critical theorists of history, incorporating topics such as objectivity, ideology, historical explanation and narrative.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements	xvi
Introduction	1	(4)
PART I Speculative philosophy of history	5	(274)
1 Speculative philosophy of history: what is it and why study it?	7	(7)
Introduction - the two branches of philosophy of history: speculative and analytic	7	(1)
'Philosophy'	8	(1)
Speculative philosophy of history	9	(5)
The relevance of speculative philosophy of history	10	(2)
Is speculative philosophy of history worthwhile?	12	(2)
2 Pre-classical ideas on 'history'	14	(14)
Introduction: principles of selection	14	(2)
A 'pre-historic' mentality?	16	(3)
A mythical consciousness of the past?	16	(1)
'I' and 'Thou'	16	(1)
'Poetry'	17	(1)
'Primitiveness'	17	(1)
'Childhood'	18	(1)
A bizarre or 'workable' mentality?	18	(1)
Ancient ideas of history	19	(6)
Time	19	(1)
The passing of time	20	(1)
The archetypal past	21	(1)
'Story-telling' and 'historical causality'	21	(1)
'Progress'	22	(1)
'Science'	23	(1)
The earthly life	24	(1)
Some reflections	25	(3)
3 Classical Greek and Roman speculations on history	28	(17)
Introduction	28	(3)
The emergence from 'myth'	28	(1)
Reasons for the shift	29	(2)
Classical Greek and Roman ideas on 'history'	31	(10)
Historical cycles	31	(2)
'Fate', 'Fortune', and 'the gods'	33	(2)
The principle of growth (the biological analogy)	35	(2)
Decay, and 'the ages of man'	37	(2)
Political cycles	39	(1)
Unchanging 'human nature'	40	(1)
Comments	41	(4)
Conflicting views on the idea of 'progress' in the Classical world	41	(3)
'Progress' and philosophy of history: special pleading?	44	(1)
4 The Christian challenge to Graeco-Roman historical perspectives	45	(29)
Introduction	45	(1)
Roman historical ideas	45	(7)
The 'Four World-Monarchies' myth	45	(1)
Cycles	46	(1)
The demise of Empire	47	(1)
'Rome Eternal'	48	(1)
Escape from cycles?	48	(1)
The 'body-state' analogy	49	(2)
Other presuppositions	51	(1)
Graeco-Roman historical ideology summarised	51	(1)
The Judaeo-Christian alternative	52	(4)
Jewish apocalyptic ideas	52	(2)
Early Christianity	54	(1)
Augustine (354-430)	55	(1)
The Graeco-Roman/Judaeo-Christian divide	56	(5)
The dichotomy questioned	56	(2)
The dichotomy denied?	58	(1)
The dichotomy affirmed?	59	(2)
Augustine, the philosopher of history?	61	(8)
Augustine's two 'cities'	61	(1)
The irrelevance of history?	62	(1)
History as relevant?	63	(2)
Interpreting Augustine	65	(2)
Some heuristics of the history of thought	67	(2)
Summary comments	69	(5)
The Christian challenge	69	(1)
Cyclical and linear history	69	(1)
The Christian deity and history	70	(1)
The temporal and spiritual lives	71	(3)
5 A changing consciousness of history: the Renaissance and Machiavelli	74	(33)
Introduction	74
The 'Middle Ages'	74	(1)
Historical monotony?	74	(1)
Aquinas	75	(1)
'Scholasticism'	76
Renaissance humanism and 'the Middle Ages'	71	(10)
Effects on historical consciousness	78	(1)
The humanists and 'secularism'	79	(2)
Broader Renaissance secularism	81	(4)
Economic activity and secularism	81	(1)
Individualism'	82	(1)
'Cultural relativism'	83	(1)
Printing	84	(1)
Limitations of the Renaissance 'Cultural Revolution'	85	(5)
Continuing relevance of 'the Renaissance'	87	(1)
'Movements'	88	(2)
Thomas More's Utopia	90	(3)
Niccolò Machiavelli (1469-1527)	93	(14)
Machiavelli's reputation	93	(1)
Machiavelli on history	94	(1)
Learning from history	95	(2)
Principles underlying history - unchanging nature and human nature	97	(1)
'Education' : law, role-models, and religion	98	(2)
The role of individuals	100	(1)
'Fortune'	100	(2)
Cycles	102	(1)
God	103	(1)
Summary comments	104	(3)
6 An innovative interlude: from Machiavelli to Vico	107	(20)
Introduction	107	(1)
Vico's originality	107	(1)
Vico's intellectual inheritance	108	(16)
The Scientific Revolution	108	(3)
Seventeenth-century philosophy	111	(1)
'Empiricism'	111	(1)
Seventeenth-century 'rationalism'	112	(3)
Seventeenth-century political thought	115	(4)
The discipline of history	119	(1)
Religion and Biblical criticism	120	(4)
Conclusion	124	(3)
7 Vico's philosophy of history	127	(41)
Introduction	127	(4)
Vico's intellectual development	127	(1)
Vico's 'great discovery'	128	(1)
Vico's 'master-key'	129	(2)
The question of true knowledge	131	(5)
The earlier Vico	131	(1)
'True knowledge' in the New Science	132	(4)
Vico's 'ideal eternal history'	136	(11)
Mankind's origins - 'the age of gods'	136	(4)
The 'age of heroes'	140	(3)
The 'age of men'	143	(2)
Monarchy in the 'age of men'	145	(1)
The potential demise of 'the age of men'	146	(1)
The recourse of history	147	(5)
The idea of 'recourse'	147	(2)
'Recourse' in post-Classical European history	149	(1)
The inevitability of 'recourse'?	150	(2)
Religion and the meaning of history	152	(7)
Biblical history and the Hebrews	153	(1)
Christianity	153	(2)
'Providence'	155	(2)
Divine grace	157	(2)
Religion and history in Vico	159	(1)
Political dimensions	159	(6)
Cyclical depression?	159	(2)
Stopping the rot?	161	(2)
A new age?	163	(2)
Summary comments	165	(3)
8 Speculative philosophy of history during the Enlightenment	168	(33)
Introduction	168	(3)
Vico and the Enlightenment	168	(1)
The Enlightenment	168	(2)
Enlightenment 'philosophy of history'	170	(1)
Rousseau	171	(13)
The Discourse on the Arts and Sciences	171	(3)
The Discourse on the Origins of Inequality	174	(1)
The 'noble savage'	175	(1)
The disastrous progress of mankind	176	(2)
The origins of political societies	178	(1)
The final stages	179	(1)
Rousseau's philosophy of history	180	(1)
Postscript on Rousseau - The Social Contract	181	(2)
Critique	183	(1)
Turgot	184	(3)
On 'progress' and 'rationality'	184	(2)
The monitoring of 'progress'	186	(1)
Condorcet	187	(9)
Historical premises	188	(1)
The ten stages of history	189	(2)
Overview of Condorcet's philosophy of history	191	(2)
The tenth stage	193	(1)
Politics and philosophy of history in Condorcet	194	(2)
Edmund Burke	196	(1)
The argument of the Reflections	196	(4)
Conclusion	200	(1)
9 Hegel's philosophy of history	201	(37)
Introduction	201	(8)
The influence of Hegel's times	202	(1)
Introduction to Hegel's thought	203	(1)
Mind objectifying itself	204	(1)
Dialectics	205	(1)
Impersonal 'Reason'	206	(3)
Hegel's Philosophy of Right	209	(4)
Right, will, and freedom	209	(1)
Property and crime	210	(1)
'Morality' and conscience	211	(1)
Ethical life - the family	211	(1)
Ethical life - 'Civil Society'	212	(1)
Ethical life - 'the state'	212	(1)
Hegel's The Philosophy of History	213	(8)
'Spirit'	214	(1)
'Spirit' and World history	215	(1)
Hegel's method	215	(2)
The state and 'World History'	217	(1)
National Spirits	218	(3)
'History proper'	221	(9)
The Oriental realm	221	(1)
The Greek realm	222	(1)
The Roman realm	223	(1)
The Germanic realm	224	(1)
The first period	225	(1)
The second period	226	(1)
The third period: the Renaissance	226	(1)
The Reformation	227	(1)
The emergence of 'modern times'	228	(1)
The 1789 French Revolution	229	(1)
The end of history?	230	(4)
Loose ends	231	(2)
USA - the future?	233	(1)
Conclusion	234	(4)
10 Marx on history	238	(41)
Introduction	238	(7)
Philosophical foundations: the early Marx	240	(2)
Towards private property and the proletariat	242	(3)
Marx's 'immature' philosophy of history	245	(8)
Feuerbach and 'materialism'	247	(1)
Feuerbach, Marx, and Hegel	248	(2)
The resonance of Marx's 'immature' philosophy of history	250	(3)
Marx's revised theory of history: 'Historical Materialism'	253	(18)
From 'philosophy' to 'practice': Marx's epistemology	253	(2)
Historical materialism: The German Ideology	255	(2)
Division of labour	257	(1)
The state	258	(1)
Superstructure and ideology	259	(2)
The course of history: historical change	261	(1)
Historical sketch	262	(1)
Feudalism and the Middle Ages	262	(1)
Pre-industrial capitalism	263	(1)
Industrial capitalism	264	(1)
The moral dimension	265	(1)
The prediction of 'communism'	266	(3)
Later developments	269	(2)
Comments	271	(10)
'Progress', 'determinism', and inevitability	271	(3)
'Science' versus philosophy'	274	(2)
The demise of 'philosophy of history' ?	276	(3)
PART II Analytic philosophy of history	279	(78)
11 Analytic philosophy of history: what is it and why study it?	281	(9)
Analytic philosophy of history	281	(9)
Historical methodology - an important distinction	281	(1)
The difference between historical methodology and analytic philosophy of history	282	(1)
The blurring of the difference	283	(2)
The relevance of analytic philosophy of history	285	(1)
Theoretical and practical studies	286	(1)
'Observing' things	286	(2)
'History proper'	288	(1)
Foreign territory?	288	(2)
12 The 'what is history?' debate	290	(33)
Introduction	290	(1)
Theoretical preliminaries	290	(4)
'Actual' and 'ideal' history	290	(1)
Words and 'reality'	291	(1)
The word, 'history'	292	(1)
History as 'the study of the past'	293	(1)
'Types' of history	294	(7)
Descriptive history	294	(1)
Analytic history	295	(3)
Narrative history	298	(3)
The epistemological status of 'history'	301	(7)
Acquiring knowledge of things past	302	(1)
Evidence, inference, and facts	303	(1)
The reliability of 'facts'	304	(1)
Proof and 'sources'	304	(2)
Written sources - their limitations	306	(2)
'Historical explanation'	308	(10)
Scientific causality	308	(1)
'Covering-law' models	309	(1)
'Explaining' things	310	(2)
Historical accounts	312	(1)
Narrative and 'explanation'	313	(1)
The logic of narrative sequences	313	(1)
Narrative and conventional understanding	314	(1)
Indeterminacy in human conduct	315	(1)
Summary	315	(1)
'Historical explanation' restored? - 'explication'	316	(2)
Historical topics	318	(3)
'Anything goes'?	318	(1)
Narrative parameters	319	(1)
Highways and byways	320	(1)
Summary comments	321	(2)
13 What is history for?	323	(34)
Introduction	323	(2)
Theoretical preliminaries	325	(3)
The practising historian	328	(5)
Practically motivated historical work	329	(2)
Historical work 'for its own sake'	331	(2)
The communication of history: the history 'book'	333	(17)
Practically motivated historical writings	334	(1)
The nature and role of 'ideology' in communicating history	335	(4)
Three questions	339	(2)
History written 'for its own sake'	341	(4)
Narrative history 'for its own sake'	345	(2)
'Relevant' and 'significant' facts	347	(2)
Summary	349	(1)
Why read history?	350	(6)
Reading history 'for the sake of it'	350	(3)
Reading history as a means to an end	353	(3)
Conclusion	356	(1)
PART III The end of history?	357	(72)
14 The end of history? The postmodernist challenge	359	(31)
Introduction	359	(1)
The nature of postmodern theory	359	(4)
The basic postmodernist perspective	359	(2)
Postmodernism as a 'movement'	361	(2)
Some key postmodernist thinkers	363	(7)
Derrida	363	(1)
Foucault	364	(1)
Lyotard	365	(2)
Baudrillard	367	(2)
Jameson	369	(1)
Postmodernism and the discipline of history	370	(1)
The issues	370	(1)
Postmodern history: two contemporary examples	371	(14)
Munslow: the problem with mainstream history	371	(3)
Munslow's alternative 'history'	374	(1)
Critique	375	(3)
Jenkins on 'own-sakism'	378	(3)
Jenkins on the postmodern alternative 'history'	381	(1)
Critique	382	(3)
Conclusion: the foundations of postmodernism revisited	385	(5)
'Ideology' : shallow and deep	386	(4)
15 The End of History? Fukuyama's speculative philosophy of history	390
Introduction	390	(3)
'The times we live in'	390	(1)
The revival o f speculative philosophy of history	391	(2)
The logic of historical development	393	(11)
The 'Mechanism' of modern natural science	393	(2)
The 'Mechanism' behind liberal democracy	395	(2)
Some preparatory reservations	397	(1)
'Spirit', thymos, the desire for recognition	398	(2)
Megalothymia	400	(1)
Isothymia	401	(3)
The contemporary world	404	(6)
Thymos and liberal democracy	404	(1)
Thymos and economics	405	(2)
International relations and war	407	(2)
Nationalism	409	(1)
The end of history?	410	(16)
The challenge from the Left	411	(2)
The challenge from the Right	413	(2)
Thymos and the future: Fukuyama's doubts	415	(2)
Fukuyama's doubts resolved?	417	(2)
Critique	419	(1)
Empirical judgements	419	(1)
The Islamic world	420	(2)
Philosophy and ideology	422	(2)
Fukuyama's message	424	(1)
Thymos revisited	425	(1)
Concluding reflections	426	(3)
Notes	429	(19)
Bibliography	448	(4)
Index	452
0773468536
List of tables	i
Acknowledgements	iii
Abbreviations	vii
Preface	xi
Introduction	1	(32)
1 Building a pyramid or sitting on a volcano	33	(56)
1.1 The seeds of university education	35	(6)
1.2 The limited response: Achimota	41	(7)
1.3 The evolution of regionalism	48	(10)
1.4 In which everyone learns a lesson	58	(31)
1.4.1 The Elliot Commission	59	(8)
1.4.2 London's response	67	(3)
1.4.3 Reactions in the Gold Coast	70
1.4.4 Who pays the piper?	15	(66)
1.4.5 The price of education	81	(8)
2 'Your ignorance has made their greatness'	89	(46)
2.1 The antecedents of advanced education in French West Africa	90	(14)
2.2 'The danger is to educate too much'	104	(9)
2.3 The Conference in Brazzaville	113	(6)
2.4 Sudden promise of a university	119	(3)
2.5 Time for change: the advent of the Union Française	122	(7)
2.6 Anglo-French entente	129	(6)
3 Black students, white dons: Early development of the University	135	(56)
3.1 The Cambridge of West Africa	136	(5)
3.2 The 'Special Relationship' with the University of London	141	(4)
3.3 Choosing the right staff	145	(7)
3.4 Autonomous government for the University College	152	(7)
3.5 Curriculum choices: Aristotle or Agriculture?	159	(3)
3.6 American influence on the development of higher education in the Gold Coast	162	(29)
3.6.1 Technological and vocational courses and the American model	166	(4)
3.6.2 American funding for West African students	170	(3)
3.6.3 Gold Coast scholars in America	173	(10)
3.6.4 The value of American qualifications to the Gold Coast	183	(8)
4 The 'sabotage of education'	191	(50)
4.1 The first steps at the Institut des Hautes Etudes de Dakar	193	(10)
4.2 The period of uncertainty	203	(4)
4.3 Piecemeal development	207	(29)
4.3.1 Patronage	209	(4)
4.3.2 Staffing	213	(6)
4.3.3 The creation of the académie	219	(6)
4.3.4 Africanisation of the curriculum	225	(6)
4.3.5 Islam and education	231	(2)
4.3.6 Technical education	233	(1)
4.3.7 Alternative models	234	(2)
4.4 The metamorphosis	236	(5)
5 Nationalism, the best insurance against communism	241	(60)
5.1 The nationalists in government	242	(12)
5.2 Gold Coast students in Great Britain	254	(18)
5.3 Challenges to academic autonomy at Legon	272	(29)
5.3.1 Suppression of subversive literature	274
5.3.2 Keeping the communists out and in	216	(63)
5.3.3 Sorting the sound sheep from the revolutionary goats: the academic staff	279	(6)
5.3.4 Off-campus education and the communist threat: the Extra-Mural Department	285	(8)
5.3.5 The boys at Legon	293	(8)
6 Vigil ales evocat auroram: the Legon rooster greets the dawn of independence	301	(42)
6.1 Educating for leadership: career prospects for Legon graduates	303	(2)
6.2 The road to Africanisation	305	(6)
6.3 Pitfalls for the Africanisation programme	311	(2)
6.4 Africanisation and the development of the University College	313	(7)
6.5 Scholarships for study home and abroad	320	(7)
6.6 The Kumagi College of Arts, Science and Technology	327	(16)
7 Les mauvais garçons noirs: West African students in France	343	(34)
7.1 The scholarships	348	(7)
7.2 'What harm is there in the students dancing the bebop?'	355	(5)
7.3 Grants and nationalism: the student organisations	360	(9)
7.4 Qu 'est-ce que c'est que la WASU?	369
7.5 Remedial measures	311	(66)
8 The University of Dakar, a French university in the service of Africa	377	(46)
8.1 Student activism in AOF	381	(11)
8.2 Aspiring to leadership	392	(9)
8.3 Africanisation: prospects for graduate employment	401	(8)
8.4 The final mile to independence	409	(7)
8.5 Lux mea lex: finally, the University of Dakar	416	(7)
9 Politics and the University of Ghana: 'the last bastion of Independent thought'	423	(38)
9.1 The end of the beginning	424
9.2 Institutional relations: Vice-Chancellors versus governments	421	(11)
9.3 The politics of students in independent Ghana	432	(6)
9.4 NULS, consistent vehicle of opposition	438	(4)
9.5 The media and the public voice of the University	442	(1)
9.6 The responsibilities of the University: relevance, research and outreach	443	(6)
9.7 University staffing and staff politics	449	(8)
9.8 Continuing to make the best of it?	457	(4)
10 Politics and higher education in independent Sénégal	461	(32)
10.1 Student politics: the tradition of confrontation	463	(18)
10.2 The political engagement of the University staff	481	(3)
10.3 University politics: subject to the Senegalese state	484	(7)
10.4 A legacy of dissent?	491	(2)
Epilogue: The legacies compared	493	(12)
Bibliography	505	(22)
A. List of primary sources	505
B. Official publications, pamphlets and reports	501	(9)
C. Personal communications	510	(1)
D. Journals and periodicals	511	(1)
E. Secondary sources	512	(15)
Index	527