Question Hello! My question is simple. How do philosophy of time and the philosophy of history distinguish themselves from one another?

Accepted:
December 4, 2018

Comments

The difference is simple. The

The answer is equally simple. The philosophy of history is about actual human history, and things such as what constitutes a proper historical explanation, whether there are historical laws, the role of the individual in determining historical events, and so on. The philosophy of time deals with much more theoretical questions, not about human history at all, but about time itself. Does time pass, or is that an illusion? Is "the myth of passage" really a myth? ("The Myth of Passage" is the name of a well-known article by the Harvard philosopher D.C. Williams. Does time always flow forward, if it flows at all? Can it flow backwards? If not, why not? If it flows, how fast does it flow, and though what? Since speed = distance/time, the speed of time would be the temporal distance covered by time, such as a minute, divided by time, e.g. per minute; but this makes no sense at all. Etc. Etc. There is occasionally a little overlap between the two subjects. For example, the first event is important both in cosmic history and because it tells us something theoretically important about time, namely that it had a beginning, or that there was a time when time began.

Question Hello! My question is simple. How do philosophy of time and the philosophy of history distinguish themselves from one another? Accepted:December 4, 2018

Question Hello! My question is simple. How do philosophy of time and the philosophy of history distinguish themselves from one another?

Accepted:
December 4, 2018