ABSTRACT

In classical antiquity, world history was not as a rule considered as a whole, but rather as a series of cycles, whereby one nation or empire rose and fell, to be succeeded by another in a repetitive process. This chapter concludes with some critical remarks on the philosophy of history in general. To return for a moment to optimism and pessimism, both attitudes have a heavy emotional loading, being associated with hope and fear respectively. As the American novelist James Branch Cabell put it, 'the optimist proclaims that one live in the best of possible worlds; and the pessimist fears that this is true.' In other words, most theories of history have a strong subjective element, whether or not those who propound them are prepared to acknowledge it. Changes of perspective on history can occur even in the lifetime of a given individual, as is evident in several of the writers already mentioned.