This work is an essential introduction to the vast body of writing about history, from classical Greece and Rome to the contemporary world. M.C. Lemon maps out key debates and central concepts of philosophy of history placing principal thinkers in the context of their times and schools of thought. Lemon explains the crucial differences between speculative philosophy as an n enquiry into the course and meaning of history and analytic philosophy of history as relating to the nature and methods of (...) history as a discipline. After providing a guide to the principal thinkers from pre-historical times to the present, the book goes on to present a critical summary of the leading issues raised by critical theorists of history, incorporating topics such as objectivity, ideology, historical explanation and narrative. (shrink)

The view that organized social communities or associations differ from unorganized communities by having a kind of government or management exerting authority over the community appears almost obvious. Nevertheless it contradicts Dooyeweerd’s view, distinguishing organized communities from natural communities because of their being founded in the technical relation frame respectively the biotic one. This paper discusses the dual character of associations, requiring the introduction of a new relation frame. Determined by authority and discipline, the political relation frame succeeds the frames (...) of social intercourse and economic relations, and precedes the frames of justice and loving care. It qualifies the generic character of any association, founded in that of social intercourse. Besides, each association has a specific character, distinguishing various types of associations. These insights shed new light upon the dual character of a state as the guardian of the public domain. Constituting various networks of human relations, the public domain does not have the character of a community. (shrink)

First published in 1986. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

Discussions about the aesthetic relation frame are often focused on subject-object relations, on objects of arts, their production and their perception.1 A Christian philosophical anthropology emphasizes human subject-subject relations and human acts, including more than the production of artefacts. According to the philosophy of the cosmonomic idea, any kind of human act has an aesthetic aspect. Yet, I shall restrict myself to types of characters that are aesthetically qualified. I shall discuss characters of acts, which objects are not typically aesthetic; (...) characters of acts, which objects are aesthetically qualified; characters of acts performed in subject-subject relations, and characters of aesthetically qualified associations. (shrink)

At the law side of the creation, the Philosophy of the Cosmonomic Idea distinguishes between natural laws, values and norms. Natural laws are coercive both for human beings and for any other subject or object. Like natural laws, values or normative principles belong to the creation, being universal and invariable. Both people and associations are subject to values, which they can obey or disobey. Values characterize the relation frames following the natural ones. Norms are man-made realizations of values, historically and (...) culturally different. Philosophical ethics investigates the normativity of human acts. This paper argues that ethics cannot be related to a single relation frame and that the designation ‘ethical’ or ‘moral’ modal aspect is a misnomer. (shrink)