Critique of the common sense of the Enlightenment from the perspective of Herder's historical thought

Subject Areas : Epistemological and methodological researcher of historical research

maryam Darbanian ¹ , bijan abdolkarimi ²

1 - Philosophy, Azad University, Science and Research Branch, Faculty of Theology, Law and Political Science, Department of Philosophy
2 - دانشیار گروه فلسفه غرب، دانشکده حقوق، الهیات و علوم سیاسی، واحد تهران شمال، دانشگاه آزاد اسلامی، تهران، ایران، (نویسنده مسئول)، [e-mail]

Received: 2020-10-25 Accepted : 2021-06-22 Published : 2021-08-23

Keywords: Historicity of human life, historicity of thought, ethnic spirit, dynamics of history, realization of the concept of humanity,

Abstract :

Historical thinking refers to the attitude that considers man and his thinking in his historical and social context and considers any understanding, cognition, interpretation and action of man as historical. In contrast, non-historical thinking, influenced by Aristotelian essentialist thought and Cartesian mathematical reason, considers a single and universal meaning of reason,which it considers the criterion and benchmark of all historical periods. The main question of the article is with what attitude does Herder criticize the common interpretation of the Enlightenment and the purpose of this research is to examine the aspects of his criticisms in this field. Therefore, his views have been studied by descriptive-analytical method. Herder's philosophy of history is based on the principle of the dynamics of history and this dynamism is the result of movement and dynamism of human nature as a result of movement and dynamism of his thinking and thought.Herder believes in the historical nature of thought, and consequently in language, culture, religion, and all human dignity in general and considers all nations to share in the realization of a common goal, namely "humanity", according to their historical circumstances. Hence,as one of the historical philosophers, he criticizes the position of Enlightenment thinkers and opposes the common view of this age, which saw modern reason as the benchmark for measuring all things.The research hypothesis is that everyone considers non-historical thinking to be abstract, unrealistic and incapable of understanding the historical and cultural facts of each historical period and he believes that correct understanding is historical understanding.