Abstract
It is generally accepted that the word “history” has a two-fold meaning. On the one hand, it refers to the course of past events which historians study. On the other hand, we use it to denote the written accounts of these events, namely, the products of historical inquiry. Philosophy of history which deals with history in the former sense is sometimes called “speculative,” while philosophy of history in the latter sense is called “analytical” or “critical.”
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Notes
They are so called by William H. Dray, Philosophy of History, Englewood Cliffs, N.J., 1964, pp. 12, 14.
The Idea of History, Oxford, 1946, p. 213.
An Introduction to Philosophy of History, London, 1951 (3rd ed. 1967), p. 16. On p. 60 Walsh expresses some reservation, but his general outlook remains Collingwoodian through the book. There is, however, some evidence that he has changed his mind; cf. his “Colligatory Concepts in History,” in Studies in the Nature and Teaching of History, ed. W.H. Burston and Thompson, London, 1967.
Laws and Explanation in History, Oxford, 1957, p. 118.
The Idea of History, p. 214.
Laws and Explanation in History, p. 142.
“Action and Responsibility,” in Philosophy in America, ed. Max Black, Ithaca, N.Y.. 1965.
“Agency,” in Agent, Action and Reason, ed. R. Binkley, R. Bronaugh and A. Marras. Oxford, 1971.
Explanation and Understanding, London, 1971, pp. 66–68, 87–89.
Ibid., p. 88.
“What We Can Do,” Journal of Philosophy 60 (1963): 435–445; “Basic Actions,” American Philosophical Quarterly 2 (1965): 141–148.
“Agency,” p. 10f.
Ibid., p. 22.
Ibid., p. 16.
J.E. Atwell, “The Accordion-Effect Thesis,” The Philosophical Quarterly 19 (1969): 337–342
see Davidson, “The Accordion-Effect Thesis,” The Philosophical Quarterly 19 (1969), p. 16, note 10.
Causation in the Law, Oxford, 1959. The similarity of the lawyer’s and the historian’s causal language is indicated on pp. 2, 8, 10, 11, 21.
Philosophy of History, p. 57f.
Causation in the Law, p. 22f. They think, however, that in history as in law, causal terminology is used for both purposes (p. 59).
“Agency,” p. 7.
It has been called so by Alvin I. Goldman; see his A Theory of Human Action, Englewood Cliffs, N.J., 1970, p. 2.
“Agency,” p. 22.
Ibid., p. 23.
Ibid., p. 5.
Explanation and Understanding, p. 68.
See G.E.M. Anscombe, Intention, 2nd ed., Oxford, 1963, pp. 44, 48; Stuart Hampshire, Thought and Action, London, 1959; J.L. Austin, “Three Ways of Spilling Ink,” in Philosophical Papers, 2nd ed., Oxford, 1970, pp. 283f.
“Agency,” p. 7.
See also von Wright, p. 89.
“A Mistake about Causality in Social Science,” in Philosophy, Politics and Society (2nd Series), ed. Peter Laslett and W.G. Runciman, Oxford, 1962, p. 59f.
“Meaning and Understanding in the History of Ideas,” in History and Theory 8 (1969): 3–53.
Ibid., pp. 11, 23.
Ibid., p. 29.
Analytical Philosophy of History, Cambridge, 1965, p. 143.
Ibid., p. 169.
“The Study of Contemporary History,” Journal of Contemporary History 1 (1966): 4.
Ibid., p. 5.
Friedrich A. von Hayek, “The Results of Human Action but not of Human Design.” in Studies in Philosophy, Politics and Economics, London, 1967. pp. 96–105: Karl R. Popper. The Poverty of Historicism, London. 1961, p. 65.
“The Next Assignment.” American Historical Review 63 (1957–58): 283–304.
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© 1978 D. Reidel Publishing Company, Dordrecht, Holland
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Weinryb, E. (1978). Descriptions of Actions and their Place in History. In: Yovel, Y. (eds) Philosophy of History and Action. Philosophical Studies Series in Philosophy, vol 11. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-9365-5_9
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