Hegel's Sittlichkeit and the crisis of representative institutions

Charles Taylor

pp. 133-154

in: Yirmiahu Yovel (ed), Philosophy of history and action, Berlin, Springer, 1978

Abstract

How can we learn from history? We can think of history as a repository of examples which illustrate the laws and regularities governing human behaviour, or the rise and fall, survival and destruction of societies. And we can study it with a view to discovering these laws, or in a less nomologically-oriented way, we can read it in order to extract maxims of effective action for ourselves. Something like this was Machiavelli's use of history.

Cited authors

Hegel Georg Wilhelm Friedrich