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Single Idea 19605

[filed under theme 25. Social Practice / E. Policies / 5. Education / d. Study of history ]

Full Idea

No one has found a valid goal for history; but everyone has proposed one.

Gist of Idea

Despite endless suggestions, no one has found a goal for history

Source

E.M. Cioran (A Short History of Decay [1949], 1 'The Indirect')

Book Ref

Cioran,E.M.: 'A Short History of Decay', ed/tr. Howard,Richard [Penguin 2010], p.27

A Reaction

This seems to be an attack on the Hegelian idea of destiny that suffused both marxism and fascism in the 1930s.

The 19 ideas with the same theme [ideas about the study and teaching of history]:

1866 It is heresy to teach that history repeats every 36,000 years [Anon (Par)]
19593 Persons are shaped by a life history; splendid persons are shaped by world history [Novalis]
23270 We should all agree that there is reason in history [Hegel]
21987 History is the progress of the consciousness of freedom [Hegel]
5279 Human history must always be studied in relation to industry and exchange [Marx/Engels]
5286 Most historians are trapped in the illusions of their own epoch [Marx/Engels]
5301 The history of all existing society is the history of class struggles [Marx/Engels]
20261 History does not concern what really happened, but supposed events, which have all the influence [Nietzsche]
24095 Our growth is too subtle to perceive, and long events are too slow for us to grasp [Nietzsche]
24128 After history following God, or a people, or an idea, we now see it in terms of animals [Nietzsche]
14883 We should evaluate the past morally [Nietzsche]
23873 Dividing history books into separate chapters is disastrous [Weil]
19605 Despite endless suggestions, no one has found a goal for history [Cioran]
19637 History is wonderfully devoid of meaning [Cioran]
15039 History lacks 'meaning', but it can be analysed in terms of its struggles [Foucault]
7979 The arrival of the news media brought history to an end [Baudrillard]
22819 In the 18th century history came to be seen as progressive, rather than cyclical [Hösle]
20675 The more you know about history, the harder it becomes to explain [Harari]
20676 History teaches us that the present was not inevitable, and shows us the possibilities [Harari]