First, the origin of historical philosophy
The concept of "historical philosophy" was first put forward by Voltaire of France in the18th century, which means that the study of history should not only accumulate historical facts, but also achieve a philosophical thinking on the basis of historical facts. Take the evolution of western historical philosophy as an example. Its connotation is constantly changing with the development of history. Slowly, people gradually summed up some laws in historical facts and raised their thinking on historical facts to the theoretical level. For example, in the Middle Ages, influenced by religion, Augustine demonstrated the existence of God and thought that human society was pre-arranged by God, so the development of human society living in the secular world was inevitable. In modern times, Vico believes that the history of all ethnic groups has experienced the development of "the era of gods", "the era of heroes" and "the era of people" in turn, which is the necessity of historical development. Hegel also believes that the development of history is bound to be accompanied by "absolute spirit". They tried to explain that there were certain laws behind historical facts. However, with the development of science, people gradually question the laws behind historical facts. Before formulating the laws behind historical facts, it is necessary for us to study the nature of historical knowledge. These are theoretical generalizations of grasping history and historical facts from a philosophical perspective. In the Encyclopedia of Philosophy, the definition of historical philosophy is: "Historical philosophy usually refers to two interrelated branches of philosophical research. One is the philosophical analysis of history, that is, the exploration of the logic, concept and epistemology of historians' work. The second refers to trying to find some meaning or significance beyond the usual understanding of historical work in the whole process of historical events or the general nature of historical processes.
Second, from speculation to analysis.
Looking at the development of western historical philosophy, we can know that western historical philosophy is from speculation to analysis. In the middle of last century, Walsh divided historical philosophy into two categories in Introduction to Historical Philosophy: speculative historical philosophy and analytical historical philosophy. Although the forms are different, they are all arguments about historical laws. Speculative historical philosophy holds that history has certain laws, while analytical or critical historical philosophy denies the existence of historical laws. In contemporary literature, these two branches are usually called critical historical philosophy and speculative historical philosophy, and there are also "analytical" and "comprehensive or formal" and "substantive" branches.
The difference between them is similar to the division between philosophy of science and philosophy of nature. "History is a combination of philosophy. History can refer to both the past and the past, which is the subject of historians. It can also refer to the study of past events. In a sense, historical philosophy is a kind of "meta-history", which is the product of philosophy and historical development. On this basis, the basic problem of historical philosophy is the understanding and understanding of history. Generally speaking, speculative philosophy of history takes history as its object, while analytical or critical philosophy of history takes understanding of history as its object.
The above-mentioned speculative philosophy of history and analytical philosophy of history all take historical laws as a watershed. Speculative historical philosophy holds that the development of social history has its inevitability and regularity and belongs to historical determinism. For example, Bingler's masterpiece The Decline of the West shows that history is regular to some extent. Toynbee studies the historical development of all ethnic groups with cultural forms. By the end of 19, speculative historical philosophy gradually declined and was replaced by analytical historical philosophy, which paid more attention to what historical knowledge was, rather than the essence of history. Critical philosophy of history denies the existence of historical laws because it is limited to the scope of epistemology.
Although there are many reasons for the change from speculative historical philosophy to analytical historical philosophy. Mainly since the Enlightenment, people's' freedom' has been greatly liberated and a rational principle has been established in the whole western world. To some extent, people are deeply influenced by it. Popper, a philosopher of science who shocked the western academic circles in the last century, opposed any laws in history and thought that the future of human history was unpredictable. He applied the falsification principle to scientific theory, which can be strictly tested by experience until it is falsified. Historical knowledge and knowledge of nature have something in common, and they all start with problems. However, historical knowledge is different from knowledge of nature's. Historical knowledge is non-repetitive, because history is one-dimensional and non-repetitive, so it cannot be tested by experience. He not only demonstrated that the progress of human knowledge is unpredictable in the poverty of historicism, but also opposed historicism and its enemies in an open society.
Third, Marxist historical philosophy.
We are in the middle of history and the main body of history. Although the laws of history do not depend on people's will, we can feel constrained by the laws of history when we live in history. Historical laws are also discovered in the process of historical development. Therefore, we are in a dominant position in history. It is the conscious and purposeful practical activities of human beings that constitute the calendar of human society. In Criticism of Political Economy, Marx regards the replacement of different historical periods as the replacement of the sum of economic relations, and regards society as a specific historical form with production relations as the staging standard. In the preface of the first edition of Das Kapital, it is clearly pointed out: "The development of social and economic forms is a natural historical process." In the manuscript of Das Kapital, Marx's theory of "three social forms" is particularly important. Marx's division of social forms not only reflects the historical progress, but also transcends the previous speculative historical philosophy; It also embodies the historical law and answers the query of analytical historical philosophy on the historical law.
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