Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-wzw2p Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-05-03T15:50:02.071Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

The Philosophy of History

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2024

Irfan Habib*
Affiliation:
Aligarh University, Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh, India
*
Irfan Habib, Aligarh University, Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh, India.

Abstract

Written in memory of the Indian historian Papiya Ghosh, this article tries to establish a dialogue between two different fields, Philosophy and History, and to see how the History of the past can be reassessed in the light of the modern developments of philosophy. The author analyses the raison d’être of History, which is to Humanity what the personal memory is to the individual. Facts are selected and interpreted as they mirror the historian’s biases and choices (that are never neutral), i.e. his/her personal philosophy, external pressures but also the evolution of the society. All meet a mainstream ideology that must be overcome or, at least, taken into account. Marxism and gender studies for instance re-examined whole parts of History and shed new light on wide aspects for-merly neglected by scholars. Inversely certain trends of Indian historiography such as subaltern studies provide a distorted vision of colonial society and tend to promote cultural nationalism while putting aside universal values that bring human beings together. The historical narrative changes and must change, however, not only according to newly discovered facts but also accord-ing to the evolution of ideas and human values.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © ICPHS 2012

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Notes

1. Conference delivered on 21 October 2010, at the Congress of the Afro-Asian Philosophical Association in Mumbai.

2. Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, the hindu nationalist movement.