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Title: Reasons for Our Rhymes: In Inquiry into the Philosophy of History by Robert A. Herrera ISBN: 0-8028-4928-8 Publisher: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co. Pub. Date: July, 2001 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $20.00

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Average Customer Rating: 4.5 (2 reviews)

Rating: 5
Summary: Those who do not remember the past...
Comment: Not all histories are equal.

Anyone who has ever debated the historical accuracy of the Bible knows the principle to which I'm referring here. How the literate classes viewed history in the past is not the same as how we conceive it today. However, there is no easy one-step shift between our current method of history and those of biblical times. How history is done has been an ongoing development of method, just as science, theology, politics, business, and most every other human endeavour has developed.

Enter this slim book: 'Reasons for Our Rhymes: An Inquiry into the Philosophy of History'. In this book, R.A. Herrera, professor emeritus of philosophy who taught at Rutgers, Seton Hall, and Baruch, follows the development of major twists in the development of historical method and discourse from the early Hellenic origins to the present. Herrera sees the interchange between Hellenic influences and Biblical influences as being significant.

It is probably not unusual that people without a sense of history, but rather a sense of mystery, who lived in a cyclically-patterned world, would tend to see the cycles as more important than the separate events. Even the great people and events tended toward legendary embellishment (something that carries over toward Biblical and other ancient trends in writing), and often became part of a cyclical pattern (this tendency toward the cyclical view has never departed from history, particularly from the popular view of history).

Herrera credits the early Biblical writers for making a stronger base for the idea of linear time. This is the primary concept for history today.

Most philosophies of history waver between the repetitious pattern and the linear development. Augustine, whom Herrera introduces as the first, most fully-developed philosopher of history, cast a shadow from classical times through the Middle Ages into the Renaissance, even up to Hegel and Marx, by solidifying the idea of the non-repeatable. For Augustine, that exemplary event was clear: Christ would not be crucified again -- it was a once-and-for-all event. This seemingly simple statement shatters the entirely-cyclical view. Augustine work in The City of God is a theological/philosophical development of history, which while it incorporates some cycles of events, moves inexorably from a beginning to an end.

Developing from Augustinian beginnings and later variations, Herrera continues with in-depth analysis of the ideas of the philosophy of history (which, for significant stretches of time, was a combination of theology and philosophy) through Joachim of Fiore, a monk-mystic compared to the better-known Hildegard of Bingen as one who incorporates visionary aspects to his thinking processes. Joachim developed some spiral ideas (a combination of cyclical and linear patterns) which, while outlandish in interpretation and biblical exegetical incorporation, represented an important point in historical thinking. Joachim was also one to emphasise the end of history, and this end, through Joachim's writings and thoughts, influenced another man, Christopher Columbus, who saw himself as a developer of historical ideas from this mystic.

Herrera develops Augustinian variations (Bishop Otto, Hildegard, Gabino of Eberbad) and Renaissance developments (Petrarch, Manetti, More, Bacon, Campanella, Montaigne) in separate chapters, examining small but significant trends in the philosophy of history. The true ushers to modern thinking, however, Herrara identifies as Bishop Bossuet and Giambattista Vico. Bossuet was an emulator of Augustine until he began to depart significantly from Augustine, not least on the point of being more interested in history per se than with history as a tool. Vico as a student of Plato and Tacitus, and, having written extensively reacting against past theologians, scientists, classical writers, and contemporary political figures, develops what might be considered the first universal history, and the first philosophy of history successfully separated from theology.

The progress of modern historical thinking is developed through Hegel, Nietzsche, Marx, and their various admirers, detractors, disciples, and developers. Each of these figures is likewise influenced and owes development to a host of others -- Hegel, for instance, stands most firmly on the shoulders of Kant, Lessing, Fichte, Herder, and Schelling. Historically speaking, Lessing in perhaps the most significant link the chain, having drawn material from Joachim for his work Education of the Human Race.

Through these men to the later Soloviev and Berdyaev (as the philosophy of history develops into a pursuit interested in but removed from other disciplines), the fundamental defining principle shifts from 'God' to 'Providence' to 'Progress', at which stage we largely find ourselves today. Some (Nietzsche's followers, for example) tend to paint black and dismal pictures of the end of history, requiring massive action to avert disaster (which, ironically, has been used -- as in the case of the Nazi co-opting of Nietzschean thought -- to justify disastrous actions). Have we reached the stage of 'post-history'?

It is ironic that history always defines its future in terms of the current culture or civilisation (there is a distinction developed in the later chapters of Herrera). Near the end, Herrara quotes Fukuyama, Foucault, Popper, Niethammer, and Jaspers. Fukuyama speculates (alas, proven untrue by recent events) that there are no great struggles left, and 'no barbarians at the gate', as the modern world has proven itself the only viable one. Some posthistorians blame technology as quickening the death of history as well as reality (one can debate here what the nature of that reality is). Posthistory may yet survive the coming time, but only history will tell.

There is no real conclusion to this work, which is something I applaud. Herrera is frank about his intellectual and cultural biases in the development of this work (something important to understand, in any philosophical construct, for certain methods and terminology is understood without elaboration in certain ways given particular backgrounds). The history and development of the philosophy of history continues.

Rating: 4
Summary: A Useful Introduction to a Sometimes Difficult Subject
Comment: Of the many branches of philosophy, perhaps the most interesting to specialists and laymen alike is the philosophy of history, a subject that has been recently come to the fore of the academic world as those who believe history is coming to an end are still grappling with those who feel history is far from over.

Unfortunately, most books on the subject would frighten away even the most fervent scholar. Rare is the academic these days who can write for the educated public.

Yet, there are good introductions to the topic and this is one of them. A strong point in Herrera's favor is that this book pretends to be no more than an introduction, and, combined with its brevity, makes for excellent reading.

Herrera mixes chapters on the giants of the subject, such as Augustine, Hegel and Marx, with lesser known, but nevertheless influential thinkers as Joachim of Fiore and Vladimir Soloviev. At the same time the author also traces the underlying theme of the philosophy of history from that of Providence through Progress to the current anti-threads of Postmodernism.

The only fault in the book is the exclusion of twentieth century existentialist thinkers Jose Ortega y Gasset and Raymond Aron. This ends up leaving a noticeable void because the road from Progress ro Postmodernism travels through the thought of Ortega and Aron.

Aside from this, however, the book is a rewarding intoduction to a most fascinating subject and well worth the time and money.