The Philosophy of History

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

Epistemology · Philosophy of history · Sociology · Philosophy · Philosophy, History, and Historiography · Seventeenth-Century Political and Philosophical Thought