Does history proceed linearly toward an endpoint, as Karl Marx and Christianity teach?

Question

Or is it cyclical (Oswald Spengler)? Or dialectical (Hegel)? Or subject to drastic effects of unpredictable causes (Bertrand Russell)? Is there such a thing as gradual progress (Gordon Childe) and is there justification for faith in human self-perfectibility (the Humanists)? what is your take on the course of history?

Answer 1

History is what you make it. Nothing more. Nothing less. If you choose to delete this answer, I can't get chosen for best. If you don't, there is a possibility I will. Life is possibilities. Nothing more, nothing less.

~Kyuuki

Answer 2

Glad you asked that question!

History I believe combines both the linear and the cylical approach, that is, I see it as a Spiral, a kind of reconciliation of opposites: the linear and the cyclical.

If you look at history, it does obviously repeat to a certain extent. There's a war now, there was one in the 1960's, again in the 40's and so on. And yet in each of those events we can discover the unique. Events developed that wars resulted.

From my observations what makes most sense to me is the Spiral whether you want to consider it an upward spiral or a downward spiral. The point is that there is movement; it holds to both the linear nature of history, but it also incorporates the cyclical nature of history that we experience.

Can we include the dialectical? Why not? Isn't that what we've done in focusing on the Spiral?

Answer 3

The history of life on this planet shows that in some respects it is cyclical, but one punctuated with sharp periods of catastrophe. As a result, things do end periodically, but only long enough for something else to start up. The only thing we really don't know is if this unique or just a part of the life cycle of life on a planet.

Answer 4

History? Yes. The end point is present time.

If you meant to ask, Does life/existence proceed linearly... , then the answer is yes, but there is no end point as it's always toward the future.