Critique of historical theory / Emerita S. Quito.

Includes bibliography and index.

In clear and broad strokes characterized by years of deep study leading to a clarity of explanation and a felicitous choice of citations to bring out her points, she {Dr. Quito} reviews the thoughts of the great thinkers of the Western world from the 18th-century German idealists to the 20th-century evolutionists, from Herder to Teilhard de Chardin. She delves into the meaning behind the historical events of which man constitutes both a subject perceiving and an object being affected. Looking at historical events and interpreting these events through causes, she shows how thinkers investigating the larger picture of historical events, the macrodesigns, have been influenced by their 'angle of viewing' and, depending on their own presuppositions, look upon the broad events of history either as having an end or teleology (Providence or Spirit) or merely as the result of happenstance or chance.