Universal History, Philosophical History, and the Fate of Humanity

History in the Western tradition has always had a pretension to
universality, to encompassing all human beings within a single
interconnected story. This desire can be traced from Polybius and
Diodorus Siculus in the classical world through to the Christian
writings of Eusebius, Augustine, Bede, and Otto of Freising. The
Enlightenment attempted to construct universal history on more
philosophical and scientific principles, including the stadial model
of history. Universal history thereby linked itself to philosophical
history, and the nineteenth century witnessed a flowering of such
history ranging from Hegel to Marx to liberal advocates of progress.
From the Enlightenment onward, universal/philosophical history has
been constitutive of the many utopian projects of the West.

These attempts were based on a very limited knowledge of human
history, with much philosophical history owing more to philosophy
than to historical understanding. Perhaps only in the last thirty
years has the requisite knowledge been made available for writing
something approaching a genuine history of humanity. But such a
contemporary writing of universal history would have to expand beyond
traditional philosophical orientations in order to include the
inextricable factors of science, technology, capitalism, ecology, and
mass media. At the same time, the recent expansion of historical
knowledge has also revealed competing non-Western narratives
regarding the human story emanating, for example, from the Islamic
world and China. Thus it is no longer possible to write a
universal/philosophical history based purely on the West.

This challenge to the Western perspective has not arisen solely from
broader knowledge and alternative non-Western narratives. It has also
emerged from the Western historical profession itself. In addition to
an increasing orientation toward non-Western perspectives, recent
academic history has been characterized by excessive specialization
and the abandonment of grand narratives. One of the consequences of
the decline of political history in favor of social and cultural
studies has been the elimination of the very integrative core (e.g.,
the state) of any larger narrative, without which universal histories
are impossible. Indeed, the increasing disappearance of diplomatic
and military history from academic faculties has eliminated two
quintessential aspects by which humanity has interacted historically
on a global scale. Any claim to an essential Western component to
universal history has likewise fallen victim to postmodernist
indeterminacy, creating doubts concerning the necessity, ability, or
even desire to make value judgments about competing narratives. Yet
many contemporary global trends in value systems retain the essence
of their Western origins (in Stoicism, Christianity, Liberalism,
Marxism), as illustrated by the very concept of "humanity" and its
corollary of universal human rights.

The 2015 Telos-Paul Piccone Institute conference will consider the
philosophical, historical, and political significance of universal
history in the contemporary world by focusing on three problem areas:
the possibility of universal history, the alternatives to universal
history, and the value of universal history.

1. What would be the historical and philosophical basis for universal
   history today?

Is the project of constructing a universal/philosophical history
still worthwhile or, given the level of complexity involved, even
possible? Does a globalized world in fact demand a universal history?
What role does universal/philosophical history play in Western
culture? What is the continuing value of earlier forms of universal
history such as the stadial model, Marxism, the idea of history as
progress, Hegelian history, history as degeneration? How adequate,
for example, is the idea of the Axial Age for an understanding of the
history of humanity?

2. How would universal history deal with the problem of human
   diversity?

How do non-Western narratives accord with those histories produced by
the West? Is universal history just another historical model of the
West and how would it relate to other non-Western competing universal
histories? Is the discourse or narrative of universal history a
meta-history or fiction produced by the West aimed at reasserting its
political and cultural hegemony in the world? Does universal history
falsify traditional or hegemonic discourses of identity? Does the
desire for local stories and chronicles undermine universal history?

3. What is the relationship between universal history and values?

Would the decline of universal history imply the decline of universal
values such as human rights? Is there a crisis in the way in which
universities approach the researching and teaching of history? Has
Western academia lost the will to engage in the debate over competing
universal narratives and, if so, what are the concrete effects of
this historical disengagement for the future of the West? Do the
newer approaches to world history not only downplay the importance of
Western civilization but actually undermine national histories in
Western as well as non-Western areas, thereby weakening the
identities and traditions essential to state formation and national
loyalties?

This conference addresses the issues surrounding the place of
universal, philosophical, "big" and world history both at the current
point of time and in the past, in the West and other civilizations.
It also examines those characteristics of modernity that would need
to be addressed by universal history, such as economics and
technology, capitalism and industrialization, global transportation
and communication. Papers are welcome on the issues listed above, as
well as on any related aspects, e.g., religious visions of history,
the role of history in cultural identity, global agricultural
ecologies, and the universalizing effects of epidemics.

If you wish to participate in the conference, please send an abstract
(no more than 250 words) and short c.v. to
[email protected] by October 20, 2014, and place "The 2015
Telos Conference" in the email's subject line.


Contact:

Telos-Paul Piccone Institute
431 East 12th St.
New York, NY 10009
USA
Email: [email protected]
Web: