Meaning In History

Modern man sees with one eye of faith and one eye of reason. Consequently, his view of history is confused. For centuries, the history of the Western world has been viewed from the Christian or classical standpoint—from a deep faith in the Kingdom of God or a belief in recurrent and eternal life-cycles. The modern mind, however, is neither Christian nor pagan—and its interpretations of history are Christian in derivation and anti-Christian in result. To develop this theory, Karl Löwith—beginning with the more accessible philosophies of history in the nineteenth and eighteenth centuries and working back to the Bible—analyzes the writings of outstanding historians both in antiquity and in Christian times. "A book of distinction and great importance. . . . The author is a master of philosophical interpretation, and each of his terse and substantial chapters has the balance of a work of art."—Helmut Kuhn, Journal of Philosophy

Berdyaev considered the philosophy of history as a field that laid the foundations of the Russian national consciousness. Its disputes were centered on distinctions between slavophiles and Westerners, East and West. The Meaning of History was an early effort, following World War I, that attempted to revive this perspective. With the removal of Communism as a ruling system in Russia, that nation returned to an elaboration of a religious philosophy of history as the specific mission of Russian thought. This volume thus has contemporary significance. Its sense of the apocalypse, which distinguishes Russian from Western thought, gives the book its specifically religious character.

History has always been more than just the past. It involves a relationship between past and present, perceived, on the one hand, as a temporal chain of events and, on the other, symbolically as an interpretation that gives meaning to these events through varying cultural orientations, charging it with norms and values, hopes and fears. And it is memory that links the present to the past and therefore has to be seen as the most fundamental procedure of the human mind that constitutes history: memory and historical thinking are the door of the human mind to experience. At the same time, it transforms the past into a meaningful and sense bearing part of the present and beyond. It is these complex interrelationships that are the focus of the contributors to this volume, among them such distinguished scholars as Paul Ricoeur, Johan Galtung, Eberhard Lämmert, and James E. Young. Full of profound insights into human society pat and present it is a book that not only historians but also philosophers and social scientists should engage with.

Nicolas Barker, OBE FBA, has made many contributions to the study of the book. In celebration of his 70th birthday, the British Library has published a selection of his essays that show the range of his interests in a number of related fields: books and texts; books and people; typography and early printing; the history of the book; bookselling; and forgery. None of these essays has previously been reprinted and collectively they offer a series of authoritative insights into various aspects of the book as physical and cultural artefact. The collection is prefaced by an introduction by Alan Bell, former Librarian of the London Library.

Exploring the dialectic between historical determinism and the exercise of free will, from the Enlightenment to WWII, by the former Secretary of State This volume presents Henry Kissinger's (born 1923) senior thesis from Harvard University, written in 1950 when he was 27 years old and published here in full for the first time over 70 years later. The text explores the thought of three distinct but important thinkers in the canon of Western philosophical and historical thought: Oswald Spengler, a German historian and philosopher; Arnold Toynbee, a British historian and philosopher; and Immanuel Kant, a Prussian of the European Enlightenment era and one of the most important philosophers to emerge from his time. At nearly 400 pages, it wrestles with some of the first-order dilemmas of Western political and moral thought, ranging in scope from the Enlightenment through to the midpoint of the 20th century--an era scourged by two world wars and the advent of the nuclear age.

The core of the Bible, Berkhof argues, is the belief that the Kingdom of God is coming with power. This is the belief that the cross and resurrection are an analogy of the Christ-Event which is being realized throughout the world. Berkhof addresses non-theologians as well as fellow scholars. He is sure that the message of the Church is able to liberate and humanize.

Containing some 3,000 quotations by 1,000 writers from different cultures, times, and perspectives, this book will fascinate readers who enjoy reflecting on history. Choice This unusual work examines the literature of history and its attempts to define the meaning of history. Approximately three thousand quotations by about 1,000 prominent philosophers, writers, and historians offer diverse interpretations of the significance of historical study, ranging from history viewed as bunk to history elevated to lyric poetry. The entries, arranged alphabetically by author, represent a variety of cultures and disciplines, and are documented as fully as possible by context, author, author birth and death dates, and vocation. Topics such as the role of the historian, the definition of history, the purpose of the study of history, and the values that history imparts broaden the scope of the work and enliven the debate over the meaning of history. Scholars, historians, and students will welcome this book, and it will also be of great use to academic and public libraries as a unique reference work.

Readable, jargon-free book examines the earliest endeavors to count and record numbers, initial attempts to solve problems by using equations, and origins of infinite cardinal arithmetic. "Surprisingly exciting." — Choice.