[Revised entry by Daniel Little on May 14, 2025.
Changes to: Main text, Bibliography]
The concept of history plays a fundamental role in human thought. It invokes notions of human agency, change, the role of material circumstances in human affairs, and the putative meaning of historical events. It raises the possibility of “learning from history”. And it suggests the possibility of better understanding ourselves in the present, by understanding the forces, choices, and circumstances that brought us to our current situation. It is therefore unsurprising that philosophers have sometimes turned…
Read the full article which is published on Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (external link)
