[begun] 31. x. 1822;

[repeated] 30. x. 1828

Gentlemen,

The subject of these lectures is the philosophical history of the world. We shall not occupy ourselves with general reflections abstracted from world history and illustrated by concrete historical examples, but rather with universal world history itself.

I have no text book on which to base my lectures; but in my ‘Elements of the Philosophy of Righf’ [‘Grundlinien der Philosophie des Rechts’], §§341–360 (i.e. the conclusion), I have already defined the concept of world history proper, as well as the principles or periods into which its study can be divided. This work should enable you to gain at least an abstract knowledge of those moments of world history with which we shall be concerned here.

By way of an Introduction, I shall begin these lectures with a (general, determinate) representation of what constitutes a philosophical history of the world; with this provisional object in mind, [I shall] first of all enumerate and describe the other methods of dealing with history and compare them with the philosophical method.

FIRST DRAFT (1822 AND 1828)

I distinguish three different modes of historical writing:

1. α. original history

2. β. reflective history

3. γ. philosophical history

α. As to the first mode, the mention of a few names should give a definite picture of what I mean.