Thinking Philosophically about History

An exploration through the concepts, arguments, themes and considerations that shape how we think about history.

The philosophy of history is not confined to a particular discipline, tradition or area. It draws upon philosophy, science studies and theories of intellectual and cultural history. Moving from one subject to another, Vasso Kindi weaves together a myriad of concepts to tell the sweeping story of the thinkers and ideas responsible for shaping how we think about the past.

No other book combines insights from so many fields. Kindi connects theorists Hayden White, Nelson Goodman and Bruno Latour with philosophers, scientists and cultural historians including Friedrich Nietzsche, Jeremy Bentham, Alasdair MacIntyre, Lorraine Daston and Mary Poovey. She offers critiques of the understanding of evidence, criticisms of postmodernism and the handling of whether history is a science. Her approach is structured around the relationship between two divides: what belongs to the world in relation to history and what belongs to language in relation to history. She uses it to highlight the philosophical issues each concept of history raises.

Translated into English for the first time, this is a book that tackles age old questions: What are facts and events? Can we have knowledge of the past when it no longer exists? Do historians discover or craft the stories they tell? It is for anyone who wishes to learn how to think philosophically about history.