HISTORY OF THE MANKIND FROM THE PHILOSOPHICAL PERSPECTIVE – NECESSERY OR CONTINGENTIAL DEVELOPMENT?

Abstract

In the following paper I will consider the question how has the understanding ofhistory transformed trough time, mainly concerning the development from the understandingfocused on necessity to that which prioritized the contingency. Thereby it can be seen how concentratingon language can turn philosophers away from the idea that history is ruled by certainlaws or principles. That which historically occurs cannot be adequately derived from generalnotions; instead – the man is the one who, by changing the usage of language, forms the history.While the classical (idealistically coloured) philosophy of history had announced the freedomaccordingly to criteria of mind, the postmodern philosophers of philosophy of history have beencriticizing that tradition and demanding deliberation of biased philosophical notions such as theone of the unique mind, because they think that such notions were also accidentally set up andthus have only historically conditioned plausibility. This critique was in the most radical mannerformulated by the Neo-pragmatist Richard Rorty, who by insisting on contingency of everythinghumane (including language) pointed out to the boundaries of the project of philosophy as thediscipline which establishes the knowledge.