Practice question · Sort into groups
Sort each claim: speculative philosophy of history or analytic?
Groups: Speculative · Analytic (critical)
- Historical claims can be falsified but never proved
- History is the progress of the consciousness of freedom
- Selection is unavoidable and requires an explicit criterion
- Class struggle drives history through determinate stages
Hints
- One column asserts a plot; the other interrogates the method.
- The grander and more memorable claims are the harder ones to test.
Show the answer
Speculative: History is the progress of the consciousness of freedom, Class struggle drives history through determinate stages
Analytic (critical): Historical claims can be falsified but never proved, Selection is unavoidable and requires an explicit criterion
Why
One column asserts a plot; the other interrogates the method. Note that the speculative claims are grander, more memorable, and much harder to argue with, which is precisely the objection.
Practise What is History?
The app has 4 more questions on this lesson, and keeps your place in the course. History I is free to start.
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