A Dictionary of Philosophy, Third Edition
. History proper seems limited to the sphere of human action, natural events being included only so far as they affect or are affected by human action; things like the ‘history of the universe’ seem rather secondary. Problems in the philosophy of mind, about action, freewill, causation, rationality, are therefore especially relevant to the philosophy of history, and are connected to the question what is the aim of history: is this to describe the course of events or to explain it, and what sorts of EXPLANATION can be given? Are general laws to be sought, and if so, of what kinds? Is history a science?
Another set of problems concerns how history is possible and how historical claims can be justified. The reality of the past and the justifiability of using memory are subjects for metaphysics and epistemology, but the philosopher of history asks how statements about the past can be verified, both in general and taking account of the various kinds of statement and kinds of evidence, and what is their meaning. Are they really, as some logical positivists held, about the extant evidence? On what principles are facts and topics to be selected, and how far can or should the historian be objective and neutral? Should he ‘stick to the facts’? What counts as doing this?
The purpose of history must be distinguished from purpose in history. Can purposes or patterns be discerned in history either as a whole or in parts? Is history in any way cyclic? What can we learn from it? Critical philosophy of history, as well as covering the questions mentioned previously, asks what kind of answers these latter questions can have and what count as answers. The answers themselves are the province of speculative philosophy of history. Some questions, e.g. the elucidating of concepts like progress, historical event, historical period, may fall between these provinces.
Metahistory properly means philosophy of history, but is often limited to the speculative branch.
See also HISTORICISM, EXPLANATION.
R.F.Atkinson, Knowledge and Explanation in History: An Intro-duction to the Philosophy of History, Macmillan, 1978. (Covers relations between philosophy and history, how we can know of the past, objectivity, explanation, causation, values.)
A.Bullock, ‘The historian’s purpose’, C.Dawson, ‘The problem of meta-history’, History Today, 1951 (February, June). (Both on metahistory.)
W.H.Dray, Philosophy of History, Prentice-Hall, 1964. (This and Walsh are two introductions to both critical and speculative sides.)
*P.Gardiner (ed.), The Philosophy of History, Oxford UP, 1974. (Anthology on relevant issues.)
S.Hook (ed.), Philosophy and History, New York UP, 1963. (Discussions between philosophers and historians.)
E.Loone, Soviet Marxism and Analytical Philosophies of History, Verso, 1992, trans. by B.Pearce from 1980 Russian original. (Discussion by Estonian analytical philosopher with Marxist background. Foreword by E.Gellner.)
W.H.Walsh, An Introduction to Philosophy of History, Hutchinson, 1951.
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