History Teaching & Philosophy
Content
Why it is important to address philosophical issues in history classes
Important philosophers
Helpful books
*************************************************************************************************************************
Why it is important to address philosophical issues in history classes
by Michael Anklin
All history teaching must be informed by philosophy. This does not mean that one must turn history classes into philosophy classes. However, it is paramount history teachers possess a solid knowledge of philosophy, particularly political philosophy, and that students are made aware of the relationship between philosophical schools of thought and historical events.
Etymologically, the word philosophy stems from the Ancient Greek word philosophia, which means “love of wisdom”. In practice, philosophers ask questions about knowledge (epistemology); ponder the nature of space, time, God, cause and reality (metaphysics); analyze which types of actions are “good” or “bad” (ethics); debate the nature of art and beauty (aesthetics); and debate how human beings should live their lives and how human societies should be organized (political philosophy). The latter includes certain economic theories as well.
In order to understand a historical time period, one has to comprehend, as far as this is possible, its zeitgeist—a German word meaning “the spirit* of the times”, i.e. a society’s primary ways of thinking, acting, etc. This is not to say that only one homogenous zeitgeist ever existed at any given time in any given society, but the manner in which humans think and act does change over time and ways of thinking and acting have thus differed from each other in different eras.
*The German word Geist can be translated as “ghost”, “spirit”, or “mind”. In this case the meaning is probably best located somewhere in-between the English words spirit and mind.
When we study how people in the past understood their reality, we are addressing metaphysics. When we ask what we know about the past, and how we know it, or how people in the past knew or thought they knew something, we are asking epistemological questions. When we study war, injustices, and crimes in history, we are discussing ethical and moral issues. Aesthetic questions may not arise as frequently in a history class, unless one studies art history. Yet, every human society in every time period had its own particular aesthetics in terms of human and artistic beauty, architecture, clothing, etc.
While metaphysics, epistemology, ethics, and aesthetics may not directly affect all historical topics one might study, and one may want to avoid confusing students with terms like metaphysics and epistemology, political philosophy is centrally important to the study of history.
Students cannot truly understand any society in any time period, unless they study why and how it was organized the way it was. Furthermore, history students, particularly in Years 12 and 13, must have at the very least a grasp of the ideas behind and the development of monarchism, mercantilism, the Enlightenment, republicanism, democracy, capitalism, liberalism, conservatism, Marxism, socialism, fascism, communism, social democracy, feminism, and neoliberalism.
With some topics this is of course self-evident. One can’t study the French Revolution without studying the Enlightenment or the Russian Revolution without studying Marxism and Marxism-Leninism. But even when teaching topics where the connections to philosophical schools of thought may be less obvious, teachers should point them out to students.
This may also help students understand that history is about change and thus have them avoid teleological or presentist interpretations of history. In other words, once students understand that different people viewed the world entirely differently in different societies and time periods, they may also be less likely to think that everybody throughout human history has essentially endeavored to work toward the state of “progress” in which we supposedly exist today.
Finally, history and philosophy have much in common. Both disciplines attempt to understand all aspects of human existence. I believe this is what the ancient historian Thucydides meant when he wrote, “History is Philosophy teaching by example.” When studying history, we often make an effort to answer similar or sometimes the same questions philosophers have asked for millennia, such as “What is truth?” “What is justice?” or “What is reality?”, except that we usually do not ask them as directly or as boldly as philosophers do. Nevertheless, when we attempt to understand and explain the thoughts and actions of human individuals and societies in the past, questions about truth, justice, or reality are never far away.
The most important philosophers one may want to discuss or at least mention in history class include:
Lao Tzu (c. 6th – 4th century BCE, Ancient China)
Founder of Taoism, which advocates living in harmony with everything that exists
Confucius (551 BCE–479 BCE, Ancient China)
Founder of what is today known as Confucianism, which holds that humans are fundamentally good; they can be taught to improve, and they can improve and perfect themselves through the cultivation of virtue in their personal lives and in the community, which functions best if it is organized according to moral principles.
Sun Tzu (544 BCE–496 BCE, Ancient China)
Author of the Art of War
Siddhārtha Gautama (c. 5th – 4th century BCE, Ancient India)
Founder of Buddhism, which, although today one of the world’s major religions, also instructs its followers how to live an ethical life in the secular world
Socrates (c. 470 BCE–399 BCE, Ancient Athens)
One of the founders of Western philosophy; first Western moral philosopher; creator of what was later called the Socratic method
Plato (428/427 or 424/423 – 348/347 BCE, Ancient Athens)
One of the founders of Western philosophy; student of Socrates; founder of the Academy, the first Western institution of higher learning
Aristotle (384 BCE–322 BC, Ancient Greece and Macedonian Empire)
Student of Plato; polymath; founder of Aristotelian philosophy; teacher of Alexander the Great; his work highly influenced most Western philosophical schools of thought that succeeded it.
Augustine of Hippo, also known as Saint Augustine (354–430 CE, Roman North Africa)
Ancient and medieval Christian philosophy, original sin, just war theory, wrote The City of God (Full title: On the city of God against the pagans, 426 CE)
Abu Nasr Al-Farabi (c. 872–951, Central Eurasia)
Philosopher during the Islamic Golden Age, who preserved the writings of the Ancient Greek philosophers; influenced by Aristotle; advocated a society based on justice
Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274, Kingdom of Sicily; Papal States)
Influential medieval Christian philosopher; endeavored to synthesize Aristotelian philosophy with the teachings of Christianity; argued that reason is found in God
Niccolò Machiavelli (1469–1527, Republic of Florence)
Considered one of the founders of political philosophy; Author of The Prince (Il Principe, 1513); early advocate of what later became known as realpolitik (German for “real” or “actual” politics), whose proponents argue that rulers need to do what’s practical to help them reach their goals, without considerations for ethics or morals
Thomas Hobbes (1588–1679, England)
Considered one of the founders of modern political philosophy; wrote Leviathan (1651), which includes a social contract theory justifying hierarchical rule
René Descartes (1596–1650, Kingdom of France; Dutch Republic; Swedish Empire)
Philosopher, mathematician, scientist; one of the founders of modern philosophy; key figure of the Scientific Revolution (15th to 18th century); coined the phrase “I think, therefore I am”—meaning, if I can doubt whether I exist, my act of thinking this doubt confirms at the very least that my mind does exist. And for my mind to exist, I have to exist.
John Locke (1632–1704, England)
Enlightenment thinker; advocate of republicanism; one of the founders of liberalism; developed Natural Rights theory (right to life, liberty, and property); key influence on the framers of the United States Constitution
Voltaire (pen name of François-Marie Arouet; 1694–1778, Kingdom of France)
Enlightenment philosopher, political satirist, historian, and prolific writer; advocated the separation of church and state, freedom of religion, and freedom of speech
Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712–1778, Republic of Geneva; Kingdom of France
Major Enlightenment thinker; enormous influence on the French Revolution, particularly the radical Jacobins; wrote The Social Contract (Du contrat social, 1762) in which he argued against monarchy and for the sovereignty of the people.
Adam Smith (1723–1790, Scotland)
Enlightenment thinker; considered the founder of classical free-market economic theory and economic liberalism; conceptualized “the invisible hand” (the invisible forces that drive a free-market economy) in his major work An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations (1776)
Immanuel Kant (1724–1804, Kingdom of Prussia)
Influential German Enlightenment philosopher; argued that reason could be a source of morality; developed the categorical imperative (act as if your actions were to become universal law); supported international collaboration and universal democracy; however, he also developed a hierarchy of human races.
Olympe de Gouges (1748–1793, Kingdom of France; French Republic)
Playwright, feminist, abolitionist, and political activist; wrote the Declaration of the Rights of Woman and the Female Citizen (1791) in response to the French revolutionaries’ Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen (1789); was beheaded during the Reign of Terror (1793–1794)
Mary Wollstonecraft (1759–1797, England)
Philosopher, novelist, historian, early feminist. She wrote A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792) in which she advocated a society based on reason with equal rights for women who, she argued, only seemed inferior to men because they did not receive the same level of education as men did. She was the mother of the author Mary Shelley, who wrote Frankenstein (1818).
Karl Marx (1818–1883)
German philosopher, journalist, historian, political theorist, economist, socialist revolutionary, and exceptionally prolific writer whose work constitutes the basis of the economic, social, and political school of thought known as Marxism. His most famous works are Manifesto of the Communist Party (with Friedrich Engels, 1848) and Capital: A Critique of Political Economy (1867).
In the form of Vladimir Lenin’s adjusted version called Marxism-Leninism, Marxism became the basis for the creation of communist dictatorships in the twentieth century, although the seeds for this development were arguably already present in Marx’s work. However, Marx’s writings have also influenced many different thinkers and leftist political movements, including democratic socialism and social democracy. Marx’s theories are, for better or worse, among the most influential ideas in human history.
Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)
Highly influential German philosopher, cultural critic, philologist, novelist, and moral relativist who advocated perspectivism (one’s view of reality depends one’s perception, experience, and reason) at the expense of a belief in absolute truth; attacked Christian morality; proclaimed God to be dead; and famously developed the concept of the Übermensch—the super-human—who rises above the manipulated, docile masses, who live in accordance with their herd morality, through willpower and self-actualization—arguably a proto-fascist view of humanity.
Sigmund Freud (1856–1939)
Although Freud was not a philosopher per se, the Austrian neurologist was the founder of psychoanalysis, and his work, particularly his analysis of the unconscious mind, profoundly influenced twentieth-century philosophy.
Jean-Paul Sartre (1905–1980)
Leading twentieth-century French philosopher, political activist, playwright, and novelist; a Marxist, anti-colonialist, and one of the key proponents of existentialism and phenomenology
Hannah Arendt (1906–1975)
The German-American philosopher and political theorist was one of the most important philosophers of the twentieth century. Particularly her writings on Western imperialism, Nazism, and political power are relevant to the study of history. Important books by Arendt in this regard include The Origins of Totalitarianism (1951); Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil (1963); and On Violence (1969).
Simone de Beauvoir (1908–1986)
French feminist, writer, existentialist philosopher, social theorist, and political activist; author of The Second Sex (1949), a comprehensive examination of women’s oppression
Albert Camus (1913–1960)
French–Algerian philosopher, author, journalist, and Nobel Laureate in literature, member of the French Resistance during World War II; leftist opponent of Soviet totalitarianism; proponent of the philosophical school known as absurdism, which teaches that human existence is fundamentally absurd, and it is up to human individuals to provide meaning to their own lives.
Helpful books
Two of the most accessible philosophy texts for secondary students are the following books which include helpful illustrations and are written for a general audience:
Introducing Philosophy by Dave Robinson and Judy Groves (1998)
The Story of Philosophy by Bryan Magee (1998)