Subject:
Words
and Writing (Part
II)
( continuation )
2. Other Conceptions of History
2.1. Idealist Conceptions of History
Departing from a single postulate, "Spirit" (society), the idealist conceptions of history suggest, that either "God", "Spirit" and "grand ideas", or "grand men" and "grand peoples", respectively, "make" history, being the latter ones driven and inspired by a "spirit" - be it the "Spirit of Christianity", the "Spirit of Humanity", the "Spirit of Freedom" or the "Spirit of Progress" - and so it is "spirit", that makes history, in the final idealist analysis. These conceptions take only one, single, unrelated element of the multi-facetical, historical process into account; that is, of course, society, as both the expression and carrier of "spirit". Nature does not "make history" and has nothing to do with history in the idealist conceptions; nature is -if not an evil obstacle, that deceits our sensorial perception and prevents us from advancing to the secrets of the spirit - just a by-product of the spirit, some sort of accidental or secondary background, on which the magnificent events of history, that is, society as the carrier of "spirit", take place.
Thus, the role of nature in the idealist conceptions of history is that of no importance whatsoever for the historical process, which is performed by the "spirit" or "idea", carrier and expression of whose ideology is the "human being", more precisely the dominant human beings in history, the "philosopher-kings", the "kings of words and their meaning", and the writers of dominant history, the ruling classes. (On relations of domination and the "origin of words" see the essay of Stella Bühler on Plato’s dialogue "Kratylos" in the German Section of our Homepage - sorry, we have no English version available yet. On the "essence" of history-writing, see George Orwell's "1984". On dominant "history of philosophy" see Franz’ "History of Plagiarism" on our Homepage.)
Accordingly, biblical history in which "God" makes history, begins with "The Word" as promoted by the "Sacred Writing", and history made by "grand men" and "grand ideas" is just alike imparted and promoted through "words and writing", being the latter a kind of "bridge" between the world of the spirit or the idea and it’s "carrier", the human being, and constituting the very tools of ideology. Words and writing are considered "innate attributes" of society, or "spirit" - philosophically spoken, and have no relation whatsoever towards nature, or "matter" - philosophically expressed. We have a clear example for this in the case of the famous German philosopher G. F.W. Hegel, where it is precisely the Concept ("der Begriff"), that is the Vehicle of History of the World Spirit.
We cannot give a detailed picture here of how, in the different variants of idealist conceptions of history and philosophy, society and nature are being cut off from each other and counterpoised, and how nature is being "ahistoricized". We simplify and limit our observation to stating, that the idealist conceptions of history exclude nature from the historic process, being history unilaterally conceived as the social process, and thus counterpoising history against nature. Thus, the idealist contradiction (non-relation) is: History versus Nature.