ABSTRACT
It is generally conceded that Aristotle has nothing to contribute directly or indirectly to the philosophy of history. In fact, it is often believed that he is openly hostile to the suggestion that history has any epistemological merit. The conception of time that is operative and implicit in both Aristotle’s ethics and his theory of tragedy is thoroughly kairotic. As for the place that history occupies in Aristotle’s thought, this is stated at the end of the Nicomachean Ethics – it stands as the point of contact between the theoretical study of politics and the practice of politics. Halper, it seems, is only half correct to suggest that Aristotelian history is a dialectical discipline that functions as a preliminary to natural science. For Aristotle also thought the study of history to be the culmination of a full education.
