REL 278T Two Premodern Philosophies of History (Not offered 1998-99)

This tutorial will be an intensive reading in the works of Ibn Khaldun (1337-1406) and Giambattista Vico (1670-1744). Ibn Khaldun is generally seen as the last great intellectual figure of classical Islamic civilization. He reflects and synthesizes a number of trends of that civilization including the study of philosophy, history, mysticism and religious law. As such he is a most useful figure to reflect upon the significance of Islamic civilization and the saliency of its component parts. He also is rightly seen as a precursor of sociology and philosophy of history. Giambattista Vico (1670-1744) was a teacher of rhetoric and deep critic of the emerging modernist subjective epistemology of Descartes. His great work The New Science attempted to develop the axiomatic keys necessary to speak about human realities. Both figures share a fascination with the bases of culture, the rise and fall of civilizations, the centrality of language and rhetoric as the key feature of all human phenomena. They also share a criticism of any philosophy that limits its focus to abstract metaphysics or skeptical epistemology. In this tutorial we will read these two figures and attend to the deep controversies that have arisen in the reading of these two great premodern (i.e. pre-Hegelian) philosophers of history. Each student in the tutorial will write and present orally five 7- to 10-page essays every other week on the readings for the week. Students not presenting an essay will be responsible for offering an oral critique of the work of their colleague. Students will be evaluated on their written work, their oral presentations and on a final, comprehensive essay that will address the themes developed in the tutorial.

DARROW