Another faulty notion which one often finds in modern histories is the idea that the flow of history is under the guidance of abstract conceptual aims.
Under this theory, for example, one might state that the cause of the French Revolution was justice in the abstract.
Tolstoy rejected the idea that history is guided by the existence of a known aim to which individual nations or humanity at large are tending. He discusses this notion in the second chapter of the first epilogue, the first chapter of the second epilogue, and elsewhere.
quote from the chapter:
Modern history has rejected the beliefs of the ancients without replacing them by a new conception, and the logic of the situation has obliged the historians, after they had apparently rejected the divine authority of the kings and the “fate” of the ancients, to reach the same conclusion by another road, that is, to recognize (1) nations guided by individual men, and (2) the existence of a known aim to which these nations and humanity at large are tending.
Please help improve this shared document by posting your suggested corrections, clarifications, and changes below. Thank you!
Second Epilogue, key concept note 8
The aim of history fallacy
Summary:
Another faulty notion which one often finds in modern histories is the idea that the flow of history is under the guidance of abstract conceptual aims.
Under this theory, for example, one might state that the cause of the French Revolution was justice in the abstract.
Tolstoy rejected the idea that history is guided by the existence of a known aim to which individual nations or humanity at large are tending. He discusses this notion in the second chapter of the first epilogue, the first chapter of the second epilogue, and elsewhere.
quote from the chapter:
Modern history has rejected the beliefs of the ancients without replacing them by a new conception, and the logic of the situation has obliged the historians, after they had apparently rejected the divine authority of the kings and the “fate” of the ancients, to reach the same conclusion by another road, that is, to recognize (1) nations guided by individual men, and (2) the existence of a known aim to which these nations and humanity at large are tending.
Please help improve this shared document by posting your suggested corrections, clarifications, and changes below. Thank you!