The Book Critical Philosophy of History Recently Published

The book Critical Philosophy of History by Dr. Seyyed Abolfazl Razavi was published for the first time by the Islamic Research Institute for Culture and Thought.
Critical philosophy of history is a branch of philosophy of science and brings together the two disciplines philosophy and history. It is therefore regarded as a genitive philosophy (a philosophy which is a philosophy of something); and from the perspective of epistemology, it is studied in the field of applied epistemology.
From the perspective of epistemology, critical philosophy of history deals with history and overlaps with the field of historiography. This epistemological field emerges from the interrelation of historian and historical past and the convergence of past and present. It is concerned with the study and analysis of history in a systematic approach.
A scientific endeavor by Dr. Seyyed Abolfazl Razavi, Critical Philosophy of History studies the emergence and development of history as a science. Speculative philosophy of history dates back long ago; its origins may even be traced back to the early years of social life among human beings and their concerns regarding life. Critical philosophy of history is, on the other hand, a new discipline that flourished in the 20th century to deal with concepts such as objectivity and the place of reality in history, causation in history, historical explanation, generalizations and laws in history, historical methodology, and the place of different perspectives such as positivism and hermeneutics in history.
This book consists of two sections and four chapters which are contently different in terms of quality considerations, with the second chapter of the second section being necessarily longer than the rest of the chapters. The first chapter of the first section focuses on formulating concepts and studies and assesses the nature of the philosophy of history, its subject, the relation of history and philosophy, the background of the subject and the existing ambiguities in this field.
Then based on the established classifications in philosophy of history, there are two different perspectives proposed: speculative philosophy of history and critical philosophy of history. The place of linear and cyclical views of history is furthermore discussed. Then as a necessity rarely attended to in other existing researches in the field of philosophy of history, the second chapter of this section explores the background of the topics of the field of critical philosophy of history and the impact of different views and schools on the development of historical knowledge in recent centuries; and applying a critical approach, it analyzes the negative views regarding the place of historical knowledge and examines the historical perspective of the scholars of the ancient world such as Aristotle and the modern world with its leading scholar namely Descartes.
With a postmodernist approach and in view of postmodernist perspectives exploring historical epistemology, the science of history is the last topic discussed in the second chapter of the first section. Entitled as “Historical Methodology and Procedures”, the first chapter of the second section first explores the relationship between science and knowledge. The same chapter then taking into consideration the general procedures of the emergence of science, discusses the procedures necessary for the advent and development of the science of history and then asks the very important question whether history is a science or not?
Next the significance and the place of historical methodology is approached from positivistic and idealistic perspectives, and then the relationship between history and social sciences and the significance of the existence of an interdisciplinary approach to history is underlined. Applying the different views and perspectives existing in different fields, the second chapter of the same section, entitled as “The Basics of Critical Philosophy of History”, focuses on the important topics of critical philosophy of history such as objectivity, causation, generalization and laws, and explanation in history. Regarding historical explanation, the relationship between hermeneutics and historical knowledge is investigated, and the importance of hermeneutic views as a key to a better understanding of historical knowledge is underlined. In this chapter, the details of the development of hermeneutics is explored; and in proposing the different perspectives of different scholars, the interconnection of different hermeneutic views and their impact on the place of historical knowledge is investigated.
It is here to be noted that the book Critical Philosophy of History by Dr. Seyyed Abolfazl Razavi was printed in medium octavo, published in 356 pages and 2000 copies by the Islamic Research Institute for Culture and Thought.

Source: Mehr News Agency
Translated by: Katayoun Davallou