11 B. Philosophy of history (one short-answer paragraph)

1. Speculative philosophy of history — seeking the meaning/pattern of the whole story: cyclical theories (ancient Greeks; Spengler's rise-and-fall of civilisations), providential/ progressive theories (Augustine, Condorcet), dialectical materialism (Marx — history driven by class struggle over modes of production), challenge-and-response (Toynbee). 2. Critical/analytical philosophy of history — asking how we know: the logic of explanation, causation, objectivity, bias of sources (Carr vs Elton debate; Collingwood's "re-enactment of past thought"). For the law student: a judgment, too, is history-writing — evidence critically weighed, events reconstructed, causes assigned. The historian's rules of evidence are cousins of the Evidence Act's.