Abstract:

In modern Western philosophy of history, there are two theoretical traditions: one is speculative and the other is critical. These two traditions can be regarded as the recapitulations of Kant’s critical philosophy in the field of history: the former is related to the issue on the possibility of history as metaphysics; the latter related to the issue on the possibility of history as empirical science. Moreover, their difficulties are also Kantian: the difficulties of critical philosophy of history are analogous to the dialectical illusion of reason in the transcendental field, whereas the difficulties of speculative philosophy of history are analogous to the issue of thing-in-itself that “understanding” encounters in the experience sphere. To solve such Kantian difficulties, we have to recapitulate Kantian process of critical philosophy in the field of history, and to give the reasonable solutions on the basis of Vico-Marx’s science of history.

Key words: philosophy of history, Kant’s philosophy, Vico-Marx, science of history