Philosophy of history: Quick Facts

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Jacob Burckhardt

Johann Gottfried von Herder

Portrait of Karl Marx with a full white beard and mustache, wearing a dark suit and looking directly at the camera.

Oswald Spengler

Benedetto Croce

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Topics

historicism cyclicism Verstehen Covering-law model Historiography philosophy History Ethics metaphysics Epistemology Philosophy of art aesthetics Philosophy of science philosophy of mind Political philosophy chronology Philosophical anthropology

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Key People

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Will Durant

American author

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Ariel Durant

American author

Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel

Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel

German philosopher

Portrait of Niccolo Machiavelli by Santi di Tito shows Machiavelli in black and red robes, holding a document, against a plain background.

Niccolò Machiavelli

Italian statesman and writer

Giambattista Vico

Giambattista Vico

Italian philosopher

Johann Gottfried von Herder

Johann Gottfried von Herder

German philosopher

Wilhelm Dilthey

Wilhelm Dilthey

German philosopher

Spengler, Oswald

Oswald Spengler

German philosopher

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Eric Voegelin

German-American political scientist

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Heinrich Rickert

German philosopher

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Paul Barth

German philosopher and sociologist

Karl Marx

Karl Marx

German philosopher

Ibn Khaldūn

Ibn Khaldūn

Muslim historian

Taine, portrait by Léon Bonnat, 1889

Hippolyte Taine

French critic and historian

Benedetto Croce

Benedetto Croce

Italian philosopher

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Joachim Of Fiore

Italian theologian

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St. Justin Martyr

Christian apologist

Arnold J. Toynbee

Arnold J. Toynbee

British historian

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Karl Gotthard Lamprecht

German historian

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R.G. Collingwood

British historian and philosopher