Chapter i

DOES HISTORY
HAVE AN END?
END
•“Purpose” •“Final Event”
- Is there a •”Death”
purpose in - Is there a
demise in
history? history?
BRIEF THEORETICAL
BACKGROUND
 HISTORY
- Cyclical-spiral
- Cyclical-circular
- Linear-
Providential/theological
- Linear-
Empirical/nontheological
- Cyclical-Linear
Providential
- Cyclical-Linear-Empirical
-Retrogressive
-Spiritual Disclosure
-Class Struggle
-Human
Achievements
-Human Construct
-Little Narrative
-Human Historicity
HISTORY : CYCLICAL-SPIRAL
 CYCLICAL-SPIRAL
 Stoics among ancient Greeks and Romans.
 “History is cyclical through spiral in nature”
 Moves in a cycle but in a temporal ascending
manner.

GREEKS:
- Man was tied to a wheel that went up and down in a
never-ending process.
ROMANS:
- Accepted fatalistically a fixed order, Moira or Fate, in
the cosmos.
Oswald Spengler (1965)
•The Decline of the West
•History is made up of varied cultures that is
pluralistic.
4 STAGES ARE LIKE THOSE OF THE 4 SEASONS:
•4 STAGES OF LIFE: Childhood (birth), youth,
adulthood, and old age (death).
•4 CULTURAL STAGES PERIODS:
- Conquest and settlement.
- Renaissance.
- Urbanization and Commerce.
- Decay
 Pitirim Sorokin (1957)
•The Social and Cultural Dynamics
3 CULTURAL PHASES:
IDEATIONAL
- Focuses on the religion & ascetic life.
- Man is in control of himself.
SENSATE
- Focuses on what sensory as the reality.
- ANYTHING perceived through the senses is REAL and
VALUED.
IDEALISTIC (Transitional Phase/ in between)
- Partly sensory partly spiritual,
“ The present civilization assumes
the sensate culture which is
basically sensual, materialistic,
and utilitarian.”

-Degrades human existence to the

level of animalistic instinct
motivated fundamentally by sex.

- SOROKIN
HISTORY : CYCLICAL-
CIRCULAR
Friedrich Nietzsche (1884)
•Thus Spoke Zarathustra
•“Everything is repeated exactly as it is in
periodic cycles”.
1966
“ I shall return, with this sun, with this
Earth, with this eagle, with this serpent—
not to a new, better or similar life: I shall
return eternally to this identical and same-
self life…”
•First law of THERMODYNAMICS

“Energy (and matter) cannot be created or

destroyed, but can only be transformed from one
form to another.”

“ A monster of energy, without beginning, without an

end; a firm, iron magnitude of force that does not
expand itself but only transforms itself.”
 Will to Power
“If the world may be thought of as a certain definite quantity of
force and a certain definite number of centers of force– and every
other representation remains indefinite and therefore useless– it
follows that, in the great dice game of existence, it must pass
through a calculable number of combinations. In infinite time,
every possible combination would at some point or another be
realized; more: it would be realized an infinite number of times.
And since every combination and its next recurrence all other
possible combinations would have to take place, and each of
these combinations conditions the entire sequence of
combinations in the same series, a CIRCULAR movement of
absolutely identical series is thus demonstrated: the world as a
CIRCULAR movement that has already repeated itself infinitely
often and plays its game ad infinitum”
NIETZSCHE
•Series of universe.
•Each universe is expanding & contacting with a
definite combination of centers of energy.
FINITE : Centers of energy
INFINITE: Time
•Cyclically similar because the universe repeats
itself exactly as it is.
•Historical events are expressions of internal
struggles in individuals.
•Peace & Agreement = Aberrations of REALITY.
•Everything is struggle, war, conflict etc.
 HISTORY : LINEAR-
PROVIDENTIAL/THEOLOGIC
AL
ST. AUGUSTINE (1958) Jacques bossuet (1930)

- Biblical interpretation.
- History is linear. •“Creation to the Day of the Last
- One fall of man, Judgement”
•Views history as God’s dealings
one salvation, one with the:
resurrection. •- Chosen people.

•“Christ dies but - Spread of Roman empire and

its conversion to Christianity.
once for our sins; - Incarnation
now that he is risen - Founding of the church
from the dead, he - Spread of Christianity
•Government and religion goes
will die no more” hand in had in history.
 Gotthold EPHRIAM LESSING (2005)
- GOD purposively educates man morally as
history develops.
- Holy books have evolved such as from the Old
testament to the new testament.
- The former is elementary compared to the
latter, the next Testament, in the later stages of
God’s revelation, will reflect the ultimate
education of people in simply doing good for
its own sake and not in view of Earthly or
Heavenly reward.
- Progressive
•MONTESQUIEU
- Father of “ Covering Law Model” of history
- Historical laws govern the development of society.
•“ All societies rest on the solidarity of interests”
•“A free society can exist only on the basis of the general diffusion of civic virtues, as in
republics of antiquity”. The Spirit of Laws
•
•1990 : He said
- First examined men and came to a belief that in this infinite diversity of laws and
customs, they were not guided solely by their whims.
- Formulated Principles
- Histories of all nations being bound to another law or depending on another more
general law.
•Different System of Positive Law in Different Political Societies Factors:
- Personal Character
- Climate
- Economic Development
 Voltaire (1958)
- Need to “Write history in Philosophical Spirit” by excluding fairy tales and legends.
- Philosophical = “Positivistic” or empirical
- “it is worthwhile to study the history of modern times since ancient history has more lies
than truths.”
•MARQUIS DE CONDORCETS (1955)

- Man is perfectible and indefinite progress is inevitable.

•Vehicles of Progress:
•> Education
•> Moral Formation
•> Constitutional Reform
•> Rational Enlightenment
•Promotes:
•> Mathematics
•> Moral & Political Science
•> Natural and Technical Science
•> Language
 SCIENCE CULTURE 10 Epochs
- Transition from barbarism to small groups of fishers and hunters with family
relationships and language.
- Pastoral where slavery & inequality emerged.
- Agricultural where writing was invented and historic fact developed.
- Greek Culture
- Roman Culture
- Early medieval times ending with the crusades
- Late medieval times ending with emerge of painting
- Renaissance times ending with Cartesian philosophy
- Modern times ending with the 1789 French revolution
- Forthcoming: Progress towards equality in all levels – among nations, classes and
persons.

•AUGUSTE COMTE (see Lezzer 1975)

- Proposed the LAW OF INDEFINITE PROGRESS
- Human being progresses everyday and in every way.
HISTORY :Cyclical-Linear
Providential
• PROPOSED BY 2 GROUPS OF PHILOSOPHERS:
Providential
Empirical

•JOHANN G. HERDER (1969)

- Culture has its own cycle
- “Man becomes more and more human as culture
advances.
- Progress and cycle goes hand in hand
•PURPOSE OF HISTORY
- Full actualization of human potentialities in
fulfillment of the purpose of nature or GOD.
HISTORY :CYCLICAL-
LINEAR-EMPIRICAL
 GIAMBATTISTA VICO & ANNE
ROBERT JACQUES TURGOT (1982)
- Theory of cycles pertains to the progression of mentalities from
primitive to reflective rationality.
•STAGES OF CYCLE:
•Age of the Gods (civilization families)
•- Father was the king, moral arbiter, judge and priest.
•Age of Heroes
•- Magistrates came from the patrician class
•Age of Man
•- Plebians (serfs and masses) wanted structural stages in society
(democratic republics)
•Age of Barbarians
•- Disintegration from within society allowed itself to succumb to
external conquest.
 TURGOT (see Meek 1973)
-Each cultural period has a
recurring pattern.
•3 MAIN PHASES:
- Religious
- Philosophical/Metaphysical
- Scientific
HISTORY
:RETROGRESSION
 JEAN JACQUES ROUSSEAU
- “Mankind deteriorates as civilization advances”.
- “As the art and sciences become more perfect, the human being is corrupted
by competition”.
•ACCORDING TO ROUSSEAU…
 From superstition, astronomy emerged
 From ambition, eloquence
 From idle curiosity, physics
 From human pride, moral philosophy
•“Our vices have given birth to arts and sciences, which in turn produced
weaknesses and luxurious lives”.
•“Man who is born free is in chains”
•“Social life is artificial, not natural”
•SOCIAL CONTRACT (Rousseau)
•- Favors an organized society of equality and democracy which is territorially
small, like a city state.
HISTORY :SPIRITUAL
disclosure
 GEORG WILHELM HEGEL (1990)
Philosophy of History
- “Reality is spirit revealing itself ,in human actions, in history.”
- Pantheist who believes in the unity of the Absolute Idea and
Absolute Spirit.
•ABSOLUTE IDEA
- The substance of nature
•ABSOLUTE SPIRIT (World Spirit)
- The temporal development of human progress, both individual
and social.
•WORLD-SPIRIT
- Discloses itself dialectically in history as thesis, antithesis, and
synthesis. In an ascending pendulum movement.
 WILLIAM AND MABEL SAHAKIAN
(1974)
• Example:
Synthesis of the Greco-Roman culture (thesis) and the
Judeo-Christian culture (antithesis) is the dark ages which, in
turn, becomes the thesis. The antithesis is the Renaissance.
The synthesis of both is the Reformation.
Reformation generates its own antithesis, the present
culture:
- Freudianism
- Existentialism
- Analytic Philosophy
•THE SYNTHESIS IS STILL FORTHCOMING
 3 STAGES OF UNFOLDING SPIRIT
Subjected Mind
- An abstracted segment of the totality of reality.
Objective Mind
- Represents the “society”
- “Individual existence, as freedom is meaningless.”
- “Human freedom is achieved not in isolation but in
interaction with others in society.”
- No individual is above the law
Absolute Mind
- Reality as a whole
HISTORY :CLASS
STRUGGLE
Karl marx (1976)
- “The point is not to describe the world but change it”.
- History is a history of class struggles that proceeds in a dialectal manner.
- The working class is pitted against the bourgeoisie class to maximize profits even at
the expense of the working class.
•5 STAGES:
 Primitive Communism
•- Communal peace, primitive technology & common property ownership
 Slave Mode of Production
•- Significant rise of private property (Example: when hunting replaced agriculture and
cattle-raising).
 Feudalism
- Feudal lords had serfs working for them in a highly agricultural setting.
 Bourgeois
- Commercial activities tremendously developed.
 Classless Society
•- Class struggle disappeared, zone of peace and freedom, equality assured.
HISTORY :Great human
achievement
• HEGEL (1990)
- Believes that men like [Napoleon Bonaparte] as prominent
figures od world history are historical agents of the Absolute
spirit for the dialectical completion of the Absolute idea.
•THOMAS CARLYLE (1907)
- History is a mere “Biography of men”
•E.H Carr
- Emphasizing causal history of history in What is history?
•PAUL RICOEUR (1965)
- History is incomplete and not existentially authentic.
- Made connection between the parable of the Parable of the
Good Samaritan and the prophecy on the last judgement.
HISTORY : LITTLE
NARRATIVES
• FRANCOIS LYOTARD (1984)
- Defines postmodernism as “incredulity towards
metanarratives”
- Any attempt at writing a grand history will always
marginalize the achievements of small men or
little association since the emphasis will be on
the achievements of great men.

•Postmodern History
•-History stresses historical writings on the
marginalized.
•History of fishermen of a country
•History of women workers
•History of minners
• Michel Foucault
•History of Madness (1965)
•The Birth of Clinic (1973)
•The Birth of Prison (1977)
•The History of Sexuality
HISTORY : HUMAN
CONSTRUCT
• NECESSARY MATERIALS TO RECONSTRUCT:
Letters
Autobiographies
Telegrams
Artifacts
Ruins
Reports
- Interpretation or hermeneutics is an important tool in this process of
reconstructing history.
•FRIEDRICH SCHLEIERMACHER (1998) & WILHELM DILTHEY (1996)
- “Historians must attempt to live as it were, the historical period where the
events occur.”
- Interpretation will be limited by the materials available at the time.
Additional materials may either confirm or revise the existing historical
interpretation.
- Interpretation must be faithful to the available factual historical evidences.
HISTORY :HUMAN
HISTORICITY
- There is no history without the human person in that
historicity resides in him/her.
- No person = No history
•ALBERT DONDEYNE (1901)
- “There is no history of the robins per se , or anything at
all., except the person. “
•“Any work, historical document for that matter , will
have a life of its own independent of the original author.”
•JOHN DEWEY (1916)
- What is important is how history is useful for present
purposes and will have to be interpreted in that light.
History is therefore , a pragmatic subjectivity.
• CYCLICAL-CIRCULAR THEORY
- It is difficult to perceive an ultimate goal for history since history repeats
itself exactly as it is.
•CYCLICAL-SPIRAL
- Are repetitively similar and may or may not have goals.
- May be providential therefore linear
- To become more and more humane as guided ny nature or God (Herder)
- May be progressive also linear
•Goal of History:
- Perfection of human mentality such that the civilization of succeeding
cycles will be more desirable to live in.
•“The Purely Linear philosophy of history may be or may not have goals but
the theological or providential version has God’s plan where the Day of the
Last Judgement is.
- Every person is judged on the basis of his/her achievements while on earth
(Augustine)
 END OR DEMISE OF HISTORY
• WHEN DOES HISTORY FINALLY END?
- Agnostics & Atheists would say “Until mankind disappears
on Earth”
•DIFFERENT POINT OF VIEWS OF THE END OF HISTORY:
•Christian Theological Point:
- When the prophecy on the Day of the Last Judgement
comes into reality.
•HEGEL
- When the absolute spirit, in its temporal sojourn, has
completed its disclosure in history.
•MARX
- When the classless society is achieved , for there will no
longer be class struggles.
FUKUYAMA’S END OF
HISTORY
FRANCIS FUKUYAMA (1992)
- The End of History and the Last Man
•HE BELIEVES…
- Not the triumph society that characterizes the end
of history but the triumph of the Western idea of
liberal democracy as “the final form of human
government”.
•FUKUYAMA (2001)
- “The historical progress of mankind over the
centuries towards modernity, characterized by
institutions like liberal democracy and capitalism.”
- “There was nothing else …we could expect to
evolve; hence the end of history.”