Human consciousness as the
foundation of history
The first step in establishing the philosophical
foundations of history, is to begin by first clarifying the concept of “cognition”. Cognition is a pure act of
consciousness; it is epistemic in nature, and is meant to produce a deep
understanding of things. Thus, cognition is a process of critical enquiry by
which we ascertain the nature of things. It helps to evaluate the knowledge we
have of things. It helps to determine the value of things and also give reasons
for why things are the way they are.
Since it is a universally accepted fact that consciousness
is a function of the human mind, and is the foundation of all human
transactions; it follows that cognition as an act of consciousness is
relevant to all issues that are metaphysical, epistemological, ethical and also
“historical”. So, the human consciousness is actually the source, fountain and
ground of history.
Accordingly, the philosophy of history is a pure
act of cognition, which has as its primary aim, to locate the foundation of
history in the province of human consciousness. In connection to the above, we
would have to discuss the foundation of history, in reference to both the
metaphysical foundation and the epistemological foundation.
- The metaphysical foundation of history
The metaphysical foundation of history refers to the human
mind. It implies that history has its foundation in the human mind. Firstly, this
brings up the fact that consciousness is basically a pure functioning of the
mind, intended to establish unity in the midst of diversity. It is via this
unifying act of consciousness that the historian is able to identify, gather
and interpret whatsoever constitutes historical facts.
Secondly, since by its nature, the human mind
possesses abilities of transcendence to continually bring up great ideas, it
follows that when acting based on pure consciousness, man will always bring up
ideas that are interesting and of importance to the historian. In essence, it
is made clear that man being endowed with consciousness, is the source of historical reality.
- The epistemological foundation of history
The epistemological foundation of history, entails the
process verifying in human consciousness, what constitutes historical
knowledge. This again takes us back to the philosophy of history and history
itself, being both pure acts of consciousness. Hence, as a pure theory of cognition, philosophy of
history preoccupies itself with the critical appraisal of history. Also,
history as a pure act of cognition
is interested in the objective analysis and interpretation of historical data,
as well as the objective recording of historical events. Accordingly, it
follows that history as an enquiry makes use of the research system known as “historiography”
to establish what may be thought of as historical knowledge. On the other hand,
philosophy of history as an enquiry of enquiry, makes use of the principles of
metaphysics and epistemology, supported by logic to establish historical
knowledge.
