Francis Fukuyama published an article titled "The End of History?" in 1989 that argued the end of the Cold War marked the end point of humanity's sociocultural evolution and the victory of Western liberal democracy and free-market capitalism. He suggests history has reached its telos, or end goal. However, some argue history is more complex, as seen through events like the Srebrenica genocide in 1995, 9/11 terrorist attacks in 2001, and ongoing conflicts in areas like Ukraine and Syria. Fukuyama acknowledges his thesis requires revisions to account for ongoing challenges to liberal democracy from issues like climate change, terrorism, and new technologies that could disrupt society like artificial intelligence.

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• Development of natural science
• Desire of recognition
For Hegel, the primary motor of human history is not modern natural
science or the ever expanding horizon of desire that powers it, but
rather a totally non-economic drive, the struggle for recognition. He-
gel’s Universal History complements the Mechanism we have just outlined,
but gives us a broader understanding of man—”man as man”.
THE ENGINE OF HISTORY
It was the slave’s continuing desire for recognition that was the mo-
tor which propelled history forward, not the idle complacency and
unchanging self-identity of the master.

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FRANCIS FUKUYAMA
- Political Science professor, Stanford
University
- Former member of RAND Corporation’s
Political Science Department
- Former member of the Policy Policy
Planning Staff of the US Department
of State
Career Highlights:

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WHAT THE END OF HISTORY MEANS
• Compromise between Megalothymia and Isothymia;
• Synthesis between the contraddictions in society;
• Affluent societies;
• Widspread diffusion of rights;
• No longer “Barbarians at the gates”;
• No more original intellectual production.

7. LIVING IN A POST-HISTORIC WORLD

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LIVING IN A POST-HISTORIC WORLD
A parallel can perhaps be drawn with pop: we are in the post-postmod-
ern age of the retro-authentic mashup. Contemporary songs - by Adele,
Lady Gaga, La Roux - are simulacra of those produced in the 60s, 70s and
80s - Eliane Glaser, The Guardian (2014)
In the post-historical period there will be neither art nor philoso-
phy, just the perpetual caretaking of the museum of human history.
I can feel in myself, and see in others around me, a powerful nostalgia for the
time when history existed. - Francis Fukuyama, The End of History?

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LIVING IN A POST-HISTORIC WORLD
• Re-mastering the past?

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LIVING IN A POST-HISTORIC WORLD
• Pulitzer Prize for Music recipents, 1989-2016
1989 - Roger Reynolds
1990 - Mel D. Powell
1991 - Shulamit Ran
1992 - Wayne Peterson
1993 - Christopher Rouse
1994 - Gunther Schuller
1995 - Morton Gould
1996 - George Walker
1997 - Wynton Marsalis
1998 - Aaron Jay Kernis
1999 - Melinda Wagner
2000 - Lewis Spratlan
2001 - John Corigliano
2002 - Henry Brant
2003 - John Adams
2004 - Paul Moravec
2005 - Steven Stucky
2006 - Yehudi Wyner
2007 - Ornette Coleman
2008 - David Lang
2009 - Steve Reich
2010 - Jennifer Higdon
2011 - Zhou Long
2012 - Kevin Puts
2013 - Caroline Shaw
2014 - John Luther Adams
2015 - Julia Wolfe
2016 - Henry Threadgill

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LIVING IN A POST-HISTORIC WORLD
• New York - 1998

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ANTHONY GIDDENS
- Studies on individual identities
- Radical Modernity
- The Third Way
- Double Hermeneutics
Main Contributions:

13. MISSED PROMISES

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History is issuing the replies of its stock funds end rewriting the big
best sellers of the past (homeland, blood, war for land and borders) -
Vittorio Zambardino, Wired Italia (2014)
So has my end-of-history hypothesis been proven wrong, or if not
wrong, in need of serious revision? I believe that the underlying idea
remains essentially correct, but I also now understand many things about
the nature of political development that I saw less clearly during the heady
days of 1989 - Francis Fukuyama, The Wall Street Journal (2014)

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MISSED PROMISES
• Srebrenica - 1995

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MISSED PROMISES
• New York - 2001

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MISSED PROMISES
• Donbass - 2014

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MISSED PROMISES
• Aleppo - 2011

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MISSED PROMISES
The world in 2015 was battered by overlapping crises that contributed
to the 10th consecutive year of decline in global freedom.
- Freedom House, Freedom in The World 2016
• Is democracy declining?

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• Democracy is declining even in our backyard
MISSED PROMISES

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• China is richer than India
MISSED PROMISES

22. A SOCIETY OF LAST MEN?

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[…] instead of turning into a society of last men – the Japanese
demonstrated that it is possible to be human through the invention
of a series of perfectly contentless formal arts, like Noh theater, tea cere-
monies, flower arranging and the like. - Francis Fukuyama, The End of
History and the Last Man (1989)
When I came to Rome at the age of 26, I fell pretty swiftly into
what might be defined as the whirl of the high life, but I didn’t just
want to live the high life, i wanted to be the king of the high life. I
didn’t just want to attend parties, i wanted the power to make them fail.
- Jep Gambardella, The Great Beauty (2013)

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• The Great Beauty - 2013
DOUBLE HERMENEUTICS AGAIN

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THE RISE OF SOCIAL MEDIA
• As of July 2015* - Facebook Community Update
*

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WHAT KIND OF POLITICS?

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CLIMATE CHANGE
• NASA Earth Observatory - 2015

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THE RISE OF AI

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TERRORISM IN EUROPE
• Brussels - 2016

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CIAO DARWIN?

31. THANK YOU
FRANCESCO PICCINELLI CASAGRANDE