Catholic Philosophy Paper: Philosophy of History

The Cambridge History of Eighteenth- …, 2006

2002

Naïve and overly simplistic appeals to the science of history support many faulty theological and liturgical claims. Indeed, the number of inane theological propositions and unbalanced liturgical trends that are ostensibly justified by invoking history are legion. Yet exactly what is being invoked, and how can the concerned Catholic navigate such claims? I propose that valuable aid can be found in what at first glance seems an unlikely source: postmodern philosophies of knowledge and methods of research (which have been around for over three decades now). First I will briefly set forth some postmodern insights into history. Second I will examine attempts to integrate theology with history that lack the more edifying elements of postmodern perspectives.

1999

Kant's Idea for a Universal History with a Cosmopolitan Aim, 2009

Lively current debates about narratives of historical progress, the conditions for international justice, and the implications of globalization have prompted a renewed interest in Kant's Idea for a Universal History with a Cosmopolitan Aim. The nine Propositions that make up this brief essay raise a set of questions that continue to preoccupy philosophers, historians, and social theorists. Does history, whether construed as a chronicle or as a set of explanatory narratives, indicate anything that can be characterized as meaningful? If so, what is its structure, its rationale and direction? How are we to understand the destructive and bloody upheavals that constitute so much of human experience? What connections, if any, can be traced between politics, economics, and morality? What is the relation between the rule of law in the nation state and the advancement of a cosmopolitan political order? Can the development of individual rationality be compatible with the need for the constraints of political order? Does the study of history convey any philosophical insight? Can it provide political guidance? Kant's nine propositions subtly and implicitly expressand recastsome of the philosophical sources of his views: the voices of the Stoics and Augustine are heard clearly; and although Kant had reservations about Grotius, Hobbes, Leibniz, and Rousseau, their contributions, along with those of Mandeville and Adam Smith, are manifest in the Idea for a Universal History. It is as if this essay were a crucible in which Kant sought to synthesize the purified and transformed views of his predecessors, condensing them into a comprehensive political and cultural history with a philosophical moral. It is itself an instance of the integration of history and philosophical reflection that it heralds. From the Stoics, Kant took the view that nature does nothing in vain, that its regularities are not accidental, but rather reveal a functional organization in which each part plays a necessary role, and that the exercise of rationality constitutes human freedom and finds its highest achievement in political cosmopolitanism. Kant followed Augustine in seeing a providential significance 1

Changing Societies & Personalities, 2022

Review of the book by Priest M.V. Legeyev (2021). Bogoslovie istorii kak nauka. Metod. [Theology of history as a science. Method]. Sankt-Peterburgskaia Dukhovnaia Akademiia.

Special Issue of "Renaissance Studies", 35 (2021) no. 1, 2021

From the Reformation, church history presented a challenge to each confession in its own right. Protestants were compelled to invent particularly creative answers because, as Euan Cameron has noted, ‘the core message of the Reformation called for a shift in perceptions of the Christian past’. This is because Protestants, who aimed to revert to the pristine early state of the Church, were confronted with the key issue of explaining why error had entered the Church after apostolic times. The prevailing models for church history did not suit their view of the degeneration of the medieval Church, so that Protestant historians in the Reformation had to re-invent the discipline. Catholics, on the other hand, aimed to show that Church institutions and doctrine from apostolic times had always been the same. The special issue The Uses of History in Religious Controversies from Erasmus to Baronio explores this subject from a variety of innovative angles. It opens a new chapter in our understanding of the relationship between religious polemic and the uses of history in the Reformation era. - Special Issue of Renaissance Studies 35 (2021) no. 1. 164 pp. – With articles by: Stefan Bauer, Marie Barral-Baron, Sam Kennerley, David Bagchi, Thomas Freeman, Harald Bollbuck and Gianmarco Giuliani. SEE - - https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/toc/14774658/2021/35/1

The paper attempts to justify the complementary role of disciplines in the social-sciences, natural sciences, physical sciences as well as human and biological sciences to the studying, writing and teaching of history. It should however be noted that, despite the fact that history as a discipline benefits immensely from the knowledge and expertise of said disciplines it does not amount to challenging whether History can sustain it's autonomy as a valid and viable discipline.

Histories

One of the reasons for our interest in the past, or history, is our concern for the future, including the future of our planet and its many and varied inhabitants. It has been suggested that “historians are particularly suited” to exploring and teaching about the future. This suggestion recalls earlier ideas of philosophical approaches to the study of history that sought to find patterns or purpose in history. These approaches are associated with ideas of progress and teleological accounts of history more generally. The underlying philosophical approach to history is a broader search for meaning.