The Idea Of History

THE IDEA OF HISTORY Contents: INTRODUCTION...................................................................................................................... 3 § 1. The philosophy of history ................................................................................................................. 3 § 2. History's nature, object, method, and value ....................................................................................................... 6 § 3. The Problem of Parts I-IV ................................................................................................................. 7 PART I GRECO-ROMAN HISTORIOGRAPHY .................................................................................... 8 § 1. Theocratic history and myth ....................................................................................................................... 8 § 2. The creation of scientific history by Herodotus .................................................................................. 10 § 3. Anti-historical tendency of Greek thought ......................................................................................... 11 § 4. Greek conception of history's nature and value ................................................................................. 11 § 5. Greek historical method and its limitations ....................................................................................... 12 § 6. Herodotus and Thucydides ............................................................................................................. 14 § 7. The Hellenistic period .................................................................................................................... 15 § 8. Polybius ....................................................................................................................................... 16 § 9. Livy and Tacitus ............................................................................................................................ 17 §10. Character of Greco-Roman historiography: (i) Humanism .................................................................. 18 § 11. Character of Greco-Roman historiography: (ii) Substantialism .......................................................... 19 PART II THE INFLUENCE OF CHRISTIANITY ......................................................................... 20 § 1. The leaven of Christian ideas .......................................................................................................... 20 § 2. Characteristics of Christian historiography ........................................................................................ 22 § 3. Medieval historiography ................................................................................................................. 23 § 4. The Renaissance historians ............................................................................................................. 24 § 5. Descartes ..................................................................................................................................... 25 § 6. Cartesian historiography ................................................................................................................ 26 § 7. Anti-Cartesianism: (i) Vico ............................................................................................................. 27 § 8. Anti-Cartesianism: (ii) Locke, Berkeley, and Hume ............................................................................ 30 § 9. The Enlightenment ........................................................................................................................ 32 § 10. The science of human nature ........................................................................................................ 34 PART III THE THRESHOLD OF SCIENTIFIC HISTOR