What is the difference between “history” and “philosophy of history?
History is the study of the past, both the facts and the interpretation of those facts. The philosophy of history seeks to find overarching patterns in the past. For example, a book or article which reviews what is known about the American Civil War, and concludes that it was more a result of uneven industrialisation than any concern abourt slavery is a history book. A book that reviews the whole history of industrialisation in the world and concludes that humanity is working out its perfection on earth is a philosophy of history. There are hundreds of famous historians, and not many famous philosophers of history. Perhaps the most famous philosopher of history is Karl Marx, who reviewed all of human history as he knew it and concluded that through the dialectic action of class conflict, mankind was working its way toward perfect communism.
