Philosophy of history

Content:
Aim of the work________________3
History _______________________4-6
Explanation and Description ______7
Philosophies of History___________8-12
Important texts and questions_____13-14
Conclusion_____________________15
Resources _____________________16

Aim: To know more about Philosophy of History.
Objectives:
To identify purpose of history.
To know philosophies of history.

What is History?
History as the past; and
History as an account of the past.

What is the purpose of history?

What is the Philosophy of History?
Is concerned with the concepts, methods and theories used in history;

Explanation and Description
Distinction made in the philosophy of history is between history as description and history as explanation.

Philosophies of History
Attempts to find patterns in or a structure to history.

Historical Realism
historical reality or "what really happened"

Historical Anti-representationalism
The constructs of historians understood as fictions

Linear Theories
Hegel have proposed that history proceeds in a line—hence linear—and so is directional, or "going somewhere".

Cyclical Theories
All civilisations showed a similar pattern of growth, dominance and decay

Important texts on the Philosophy of History:
The Philosophy of History, by GWF Hegel
Capital, by Karl Marx

Questions asked in the Philosophy of History:
What is history?
Where is human history going?
What meaning does history have for us?

Conclusion
History may not seem to have much to do with philosophy but—just as we have already seen with science, politics and art—it relies on philosophical assumptions and concepts as much as any other subject.