what is philosophy of history and its contributions

1. NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF MODERN LANGUAGES
KARACHI CAMPUS
ASSIGNMENT
Subject: HISTORY
Teacher: SIR AFZAL HAYAT
Topic: PHILOSPHY OF HISTORY
Definition:
History is the study of past events. It means the study of life in the past, in all
aspect. Philosophy, the general and fundamental study of reason, values, mind and language.
And philosophy of history means “Philosophical study of history and its discipline” or
“philosophy of history deals with the study of theoretical aspect of History” it examines the
theoretical foundations of the practice, application and the social consequences of the History
and historiography.
The concept of history plays a fundamental role in the in the human thoughts. It invokes the
notation of human agency. It raises the possibility of learning from history. The possibility of
better understanding ourselves in the present, by understanding the force, choice, and
circumstances that brought us to our current situation are the better suggestions in the history. It
is therefore sometime the philosophers have turned their thoughts and attention to effort to
examine the aspects of history and the nature of historical knowledge. These reflections when
together in a group and changes in a body of work called “the philosophy of history”.
Philosophy is the study that how philosophers define the aspects of the human life. Philosophy of
history exist in other study areas like philosophy of science and philosophy of religion as well.
Philosophy of history utilize in the core area of philosophies like meta-physics, epistemology
and ethics to address questions about the nature of past and how we come to know it. Weather
the past proceeds in random way OR is guided by some principle of order that how best to
explain the events and objects of history.
Philosophy which literally means “love of wisdom”. It is one of the oldest discipline in the
history, if we turn back the pages of history there are many ideas about philosophers of the
history and their works and contributions that what they do. In the history we have some
philosophers who are considered in the field of science and it also deals with the logic and reason.
Anyway, many philosophers have made their contributions known to the world through their
writings and students.

2. PHILOSOPHERS AND THEIR CONTRIBUTIONS:
If we turn back to the pages of history we have famous philosophers and their work that what
was their role. And they played a great role in the history which reflects the human life and the
society of human.
ARISTOTLE (384-322 BC):
Aristotle was a famous philosopher in the history. He was the third member
who has great influenced in western philosophy. He is famous for his theory of soul and
Aristotelian logic. Aristotle provided an idea in the area of aesthetic, ethics, logic, metaphysics,
Politics and science. Aristotle was the student of Plato and teacher of Alexander the great. He
believe that “ethics should be applied practically not merely theorizing it”.
NICCOLO MACHIAVELLI (1469-1527):
He is the Italian philosopher and he is considered the foundation of
political sciences. He was expert in political ethics. Political philosophy and realism were his
famous contributions. He wrote a book “the prince” has been viewed as a master piece that deals
with the political philosophy.
SOCRATES (469-399 BC):
Socrates was the founder of western philosophy. His contributions are
much to the field of logic and epistemology. Socrates was famous in the field of ethics and gave
a concept that has been dubbed as elenchus OR the Socratic methods.
BERTRAND RUSSELL (1872-1970):
Bertrand Arthur William Russell is considered in the field of philosophy
as a proponent of analytic philosophy. He wrote many essays and one of his essays has been
labeled as ideal of philosophy the essay is entitled “On Denoting”. And that time British wanted
to go against idealism, and Russell was their leader.
IBN-E-KHALDON (1332-1406):
He is in the fourteen century one of the famous Muslim philosopher. And
he is considered as the father of philosophy of history. He, in his famous book MUQADDIMAH
discussed the philosophy of history and detail about society. His work represents a culmination
of earlier work by medieval Islamic sociology in the sphere of Islamic ethics, political science,
and historiography. He also introduced a scientific method to the philosophy of history which
considered something “totally new to this age”. His historical work also laid the groundwork for
the observation of the role of the state, communication, propaganda, and systematic bias in
history.