Original scientific paper
ARNOLD TOYNBEE’S PHILOSOPHY OF HISTORY
Stribor Kikerec
; Zagreb, Croatia
Abstract
This article discusses the theory of history of the English historian Arnold Toynbee. His A Study of History occasioned intense international debate on theory of civilizations and philosophy of history when it first appeared. However, in Croatia his work was neglected. The author’s scope is limited to the philosphical-historical dimension of Toynbee’s theory of civilization, namely, on the relationship between the two different models of historical development Toynbee laid out in the first and second parts of A Study of History. The article discusses these two models and their differences, establishing the contradictions resulting from them. It attempts to show that neither the explanation that Toynbee puts forth in A Study of History (pointing to the nature of empirical inquiry as a reason which led him to change his original model) nor the subsequent critical assessment about his book as an empirical investigation of civilizations which at one point turns into “dubious” philosophical examination of history, do not adequately explain why Toynbee changed his model; nor do they address the fact that the basis of discontinuity of A Study of History is Toynbee’s consistent endeavour to justify his belief in meaningfulness and purposefulness of historical development, making his work from the outset an attempt to provide the answer to that basic question of any philosophy of history. At the end of the article, brief attention is paid to the phenomenon of the renewed interest that has been recently shown in Toynbee’s writings and the new historiographical trends that have made certain aspects of his theory of civilization relevant.
Keywords
Hrčak ID:
208544
URI
Publication date:
1.12.2001.
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