A Universal History
There were many philosophers throughout time who sought constantly to identify a Universal History. These philosophers believed in continuity. History to them was a progressive revelation of the way the universe was structured and through this belief, they felt better able to explain man's origin and purpose in life as a whole. Not all philosophers followed or studied Universal Histories as can be seen in the times of Greek antiquity. The philosophers and writers of antiquity never ventured in the writings of Universal Histories, even though the philosophical and historical traditions of the Western world began in Greece. They only acknowledged a cyclical view of History, not one of continuity.Through the politics of the well known philosopher Aristotle, we see that he firmly believed that no regime could ever satisfy man completely, but that man, through being dissatisfied would constantly replace one regime with another, hence his belief that history was a never ending cycle. Plato also spoke in the "Republic" of regimes having certain natural cycles. The Greek view of that time therefore showed history was not secular but cyclical (Fukuyama 1992, p55 & 56). Christians however did not agree w
Many other ideas and theories of progress were undertaken by philosophers and writers of the Enlightenment times. Condorcet was one such writer. His belief lay in a ten-stage Universal History of man. Mankind though, was still to achieve the final stage, which was characterised by equality in areas such as opportunity, rationality, liberty and democracy. Like Fontenelle, he followed the belief that mankind would never be 'perfect' and would be constantly growing as there would always be stages of history still to come, unknown to man (Fukuyama 1992, p57). ith the ways of the natural philosophers' thought. The great Immanuel Kant in his writings on Universal Histories demonstrated his belief that a slow progressive evolution over a length of time was disguised by the worlds chaos of constant war, famine and revolutions, just to name a few. Man's reasoning was cumulative as each generation built on the accomplishments of the preceding one. To Kant, history had an end point, a final purpose, which was the realisation of human freedom through the achievements of a 'perfectly just civic constitution'. Kant's successor Hegel, also followed the belief of there being an end point to the process of history. 'The unfolding of Universal Histories could be und
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Approximate Word count = 848
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)
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