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was aptly described by one of its great representatives as "a glor–
ious sunrise" and as a veritable revolution in every field of
human-social activities including the realm of thought.
We cannot hope to deal here with the whole extent of the prob–
lem. Nor can we discuss the change of function which the histori–
cal philosophy of this epoch underwent when the actual work of
the bourgeois revolution had been done--that is, its increasing
restriction to the realm of abstract thought. It is the philosophical
shadow-boxing of this last phase rather than the real achievements
of the whole epoch that survived in. the memory of succeeding
generations.
In the following paragraphs we propose to describe, in a few
abbreviated formulae, the ultimate form of the daring innovations
which the concept of history underwent during this epoch and
which, in our view, have not been refuted but at best have been
forgotten by the later generations of historians.
1) From existing in both space and time, world history was
transformed into
a process that moved essentially in time.
"History
in general," according to Hegel, "is the development of Spirit in
Time, as Nature is the development of the Idea in Space."* This
utterly idealistic concept of history seemed so obvious to the last
generation that even people who were not at all inclined to accept
the description of Nature as "the development of the Idea" were
quite willing to accept the distinction between Nature and History
as things that existed mainly in space or mainly in time respec·
tively. Even a thorough anti-idealist like Marx went on record
with the phrase that "time is the space of human development."
2) By the same token, history was described as
an essentially
"internal" rather than an external development.
While none of the
great philosophical historians neglected the task of taking full
account of the available facts and of their various physical,
organic, and psychological interconnections, they thought that the
ultimate subject of history lay in some way beyond, or "inside,"
the world of visible and tangible phenomena. Given events and
series of events were regarded by them as a starting point for the
true historian rather than as the essential contents and significance
of the historical movement.
*Hegel,
Lectures on the Philosophy of History
(1822-31) - English translation by
J.
Sibree (London 1902) p, 75.
