PHILOSOPHY OF HISTORY

Catalog description

This course is designed to introduce students to the thinkers and issues in the philosophy of history (and historiography). After being coined by Voltaire, the term 'philosophy of history' has taken on different meanings. Prior to the twentieth century, philosophy of history meant speculation over the course and aims of history. It sought to investigate the subject matter of history, that is, the historical process itself. Consequently, philosophers of history aimed at comprehensive views of this process. During the twentieth century, however, philosophy of history became "analytical or critical." The aim of this approach is to question and criticize the ways that historians work, so issues of knowledge and explanation have become very important for the present-day philosopher of history. Although the course takes a thematic approach to the study of the philosophy of history, prominent philosophers who have investigated history will be introduced throughout the course.