Prophets of the West: An Introduction to the Philosophy of History

FOREWORD, v
PREFACE, ix

PART ONE | THE METAMORPHOSES of AUGUSTINE’S CITY of GOD, 1
• Chapter One | THE CITY OF GOD AND THE CITY OF MAN: Augustine and Vico, 3
The City of God: Augustine, 4; The City of Man: Vico, 10
• Chapter Two | THE PHILOSOPHIES OF PROGRESS: Turgot to Herder, 21
Voltaire, 22; Turgot-Condorcet, 23; British Exponents of Progress, 27; Kant-Herder, 28
• Chapter Three | THE DIALECTIC OF HISTORY: Hegel and Marx, 38
The Dialectical Unfolding of Spirit: The Hegelian Synthesis, 39; The Real Dialectic of History: The Marxist Critique, 47
• Chapter Four | THE EVOLUTION OF HISTORY: Comte and Spencer, 64
The Evolution of Historical Humanity: The Comtean Synthesis 66; The Comprehensive Evolution: The Spencerian Critique, 73
• Summary, 85

PART TWO | HISTORICISM, COMPLETE and INCOMPLETE, 89
• Chapter Five | CRITICAL HISTORIANS AND PHILOSOPHERS: Ranke to Rickert, 91
Critical Historians 92; Critical Philosophers, 97
• Chapter Six | UNDERSTANDING THE MEANING OF HISTORY: Wilhelm Dilthey, 104
History and Understanding, 106; Meaning and History, 112
• Chapter Seven | PHILOSOPHY-HISTORY: Benedetto Croce, 123
The Idealistic Logic, 125; The New Historiography, 127; The Dialectic of Progress, 133
• Chapter Eight | CRITICAL PHILOSOPHY-HISTORY: Robin Collingwood, 138
The New Historicist Logic, 139; A Critical Philosophy of History, 142; Progress and History, 150
• Summary, 157

PART THREE | THE RHYTHMS of HISTORY, 163
• Chapter Nine | THE ORGANIC LOGIC OF HISTORY: Oswald Spengler, 165
Physiognomic and the World-as-History, 187; Cultures: Life Cycles and Prime Symbols, 170;
The Fate of the West, 175
• Chapter Ten | THE WHEEL OF CIVILIZATIONS: Arnold Toynbee, 179
The Cycle of Civilizations, 181; Progress and Religion, 191
• Chapter Eleven | CONTENTS THE RHYTHM OF THE SUPERSYSTEMS: Pitirim Sorokin, 200
The Sociocultural World, 202; The Rythm of the Supersystems, 208; The Future of the West, 215
• Chapter Twelve | STYLES AND SUPERSTYLES: Alfred Kroeber, 220
The Autonomy of the Cultural Order, 222; Comparative Study of Civilizations, 224
• Summary, 235

PART FOUR | THE ASCENT of HISTORY, 243
• Chapter Thirteen | HUMANISTIC EVOLUTIONISM: Julian Huxley, 245 Progress and Evolution Revisited, 245; The Monistic Evolutionary Hypothesis, 249; Biological Evolution in Action, 251; Psychosocial Evolution, 254; The Religion of the Future, 257
• Chapter Fourteen | CHRISTIAN EVOLUTIONISM: Teilhard de Chardin, 263
Cosmogenesis and the Evolution of Matter, 264; Biogenesis and the Biosphere, 268; Noogenesis and the Noosphere, 271; The Future of Man 277; The Christian Phenomenon, 281
• Summary, 285

INDEX, 291