Reviews for Another Philosophy of History and Selected Political Writings

The average rating for Another Philosophy of History and Selected Political Writings based on 2 reviews is 2.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2009-10-02 00:00:00 Jason Malphus What the hell is wrong with these 18th century German philosophers? This is actually worse then Kant's take on history. Herder just loops around in circles of weak prose that seem more like the marginalia of a would be teenage poet then like actual assertions or even ideas about history, philosophy, or anything else. "Thank providence" is the most common sentence used in this work, which also seems to be the limit of Herder's ability to wonder about the world. As far as I could discern the only real "ideas" he seems to have are that everything is swell because...well, everything is swell, and "gosh, doesn't it stink that we have to think about things all the time?" It's like asking a bright eyed 15 year old evangelical christian who has spent their entire life in the suburbs what they think about the world.

Review # 2 was written on 2012-10-29 00:00:00 Adam Dixon The birth of historicism lies in this meandering wasteland of exuberant prose and muddy thought. Emotion gives birth to each stage of history, and is, consequently, uncriticizable by reason or understanding. History is, then, to be understood as the prejudicial basis from which our reasons flower, and those flowers as the silly superstructure of our irrational economic base. Also, did you know that every stage of history is woven seamlessly together, but exists in time as if completely unconnected? The history of the world is like one big hand-holding dance, but each hand is so unique that it cannot be understood how it is holding the other hand. It is very nice to have such a picture of humanity and history, where all stages and all people are the same but each unique, just like snowflakes! On the other hand, Herder's is the vision of a poetically inspired irrationalist, who simply seems nostalgic for the chains of Medievalist monarchy, and wants not to defend the rights of cultures to self-determination, but the rights of the Middle Ages against the critique of that era by the Enlightenment. Now, if you think the Enlightenment, and the idea that humanity should progress and overcome its moral challenges, is in some sense not worthwhile, Herder is definitely important to read before you go on to read Heidegger and waste the rest of your life both pining for a master to whip you and trying to understand Continental gibberish. If, however, you believe Enlightenment and meaningful, i.e. rational, criticism are worthwhile tasks, Herder can only seem pathetic.