PHIL332L - Philosophy of History

3 Credit(s)

Liberal Arts
This course will examine philosophical problems of history, including the nature of historical explanation and knowledge, causality in history, and historical necessity. The philosophy of history raises questions such as: What is the proper subject matter for the study of the human past? The individual subject? The polis or state? The culture? The species? Are there any definable patterns in human history, any signs of ultimate ends toward which events as a whole are moving? Are there any cycles of progress? If so, what are they and what is the driving force of that progress? If history can be said to progress, what is its ultimate direction? If it does not progress, is human history therefore random and devoid of meaning? The course may analyze the thought of figures such as Cicero, Augustine, Vico, Herder, Kant, Hegel, Marx, Nietzsche, Dilthey, Danto, and Foucault.

Offered When: According to faculty and student interest.
Prerequisite(s): PHIL 101L