Speculative Philosophy of History

The speculative philosophy of history is concerned with history as a whole. It relates the past to the present and the present to the future. The basis of the speculative philosophy of history is the idea of an order or pattern in the historical process.  The speculative philosophers believe that it is possible to recognize some general scheme or design or purpose or pattern in the course of human history. The pattern is necessary to consider the historical process as a whole.

St. Augustine and the Theological Origin

Western speculation concerning the meaning of history is first derived from theological sources. It developed through the work, City of God written by St. Augustine. It proposed that history follows a linear development that is based on providential wisdom. According to St. Augustine history was guided by the divine will and the course of history is determined by forces outside human control. This consists of thinking of history “as a whole” and this employed the term ‘universal history’. This presents history as a single giant unfolding story.

After the discoveries of Charles Darwin and Sir Isaac Newton, the theological and providential interpretations were rejected in favour of the scientific approach. This is based on the idea that human nature is not been the same throughout history. Historical periods are distinct from one another. Speculative philosophy of history thus evolved from the desire to make sense of history, to find meaning in it, or at least some intelligible pattern. The rapidly changing times in history need a sense of continuity. The ultimate desire is to predict the future on the basis of identifying general forces governing history.

The themes in the speculative philosophy of history focus on:

The search for meaning or design in the flow of history: The basic idea in the speculative philosophy of history is to propose a design or pattern in the historical process. It treats the historical process of moving towards reaching a purpose. Thus the duty of the historian is to find out the pattern of this historical process.

Theories of progress in history: Speculative philosophy of history focuses on the nature of historical progress. It proposes two views of progress in history – the cyclical view and the linear view. The cyclical view of history proposes the idea of periodic cycles in the course of history. This view holds that in the historical process, one can find out a beginning or origin, stages of development, and decline. This process will repeat in the course of history. The linear view of history proposes the progress of history towards a specific purpose.

Laws of Development in History: Speculative philosophy of history looks for the laws of historical development that determine historical processes. The idea is that the course of history is determined. The search for general law of development in history is necessary to build theories about the course of history.