CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2010
| Author | Stoian, Valentin |
|---|---|
| Title | Debates on the Existence of Historical Laws: Historicism and its Critics |
| Summary | The thesis investigates the arguments against historicism brought by three philosophers: Karl Popper, Isaiah Berlin and Friedrich von Hayek. In their seminal political writings, the three philosophers argue that historicism, understood as the belief in the existence of historical laws leads to a totalitarian political philosophy. Since then, other writers such as G.D. Snooks have challenged this assumption. This thesis reconstructs the arguments of the anti-historicists and tests them against the writings of Condorcet, Karl Marx and Oswald Spengler. Since the anti-historicists are those who make very strong accusations, their arguments are interpreted as demanding the most. Thus, historicism is understood to imply both strong holism and strong teleological determinism and together to lead to a totalitarian political thinking. The thesis concludes by arguing that Popper, Berlin and Hayek’s arguments do not hold, except when compared to a very strong reading of Marx. |
| Supervisor | Kis Janos |
| Department | Political Science MA |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2010/stoian_valentin.pdf |
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