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Philosopher and political theorist Hannah Arendt noted that the very idea of history being a dynamic process of "progress," is itself an idea with an explicit l
by motohagiography 7y ago
Philosopher and political theorist Hannah Arendt noted that the very idea of history being a dynamic process of "progress," is itself an idea with an explicit logic - an idea-ology - where once you have accepted it, all political reason operates within the iterated logic of that idea.
So it's not history that has laws, but rather the implicit logic flowing from only tacitly held notions forms what someone would interpret as a "law."
What is history useful for? Locating essential human experiences, but like statistics, the drunk uses a lamp post for support not illumination.
- friendlybus 7y agoMany postmodern philosophers and french intellectuals have said the same thing. We can choose to step outside the shadow of history, nearly with trivial effort. But for what purpose.
- mellow2020 7y ago> Caution in handling generally accepted opinions that claim to explain whole trends of history is especially important for the historian of modern times, because the last century has produced an abundance of ideologies that pretend to be keys to history but are actually nothing but desperate efforts to escape responsibility. - Hannah Arendt