ABSTRACT
This chapter examines idealist approaches to the philosophy of history and examines the distinctive contribution of idealist philosophers to the subject. The idealists have made incontestably important contributions to the philosophy of history and may be regarded as among the most important figures in its development. There are distinct but overlapping idealist traditions in the philosophy of history, with idealist thinkers typically indebted to Vico but differing in how they assimilated the thought of Kant and Hegel. Among the issues on which idealists differ is the understanding of the legitimate task of the philosophy of history itself, with some embracing speculative approaches, but the majority regarding the only legitimate approach to be critical philosophy of history with its focus on the epistemology of historical knowing or understanding rather than the direction or meaning of the historical process itself. The chapter considers the thought of figures within these traditions, including German neo-Kantians (Wilhelm Windelband, Heinrich Rickert, and Wilhelm Dilthey), the Italian idealists (Benedetto Croce and Giovanni Gentile), and British idealists with F.H. Bradley, R.G. Collingwood, and Michael Oakeshott representing the critical wing, and D.G. Ritchie and A.S. Pringle-Pattison representing the speculative wing.
