The effort of Voltaire and Herder in the development of the historical philosophy

Abstract

 This research, entitled (The philosophy of History Development from Critical to Contemplative (Voltaire and Herder as Example)) dealt with the issue of the development of the philosophy of history from the emergence of the philosophy of history till the philosophers of history Voltaire and Herder and what they added to it to become what it is now.  The philosophy of history appeared after development, linked to man, his growth, progress, and his connections with others, and this is the most important element that helped it develop by discovering new things that we could not know before, especially in the West. Voltaire is the first founder of the philosophy of history, as the term for this philosophy appeared with him as it came after him. Herder to complete this journey, and this research came to answer the questions, the most important of which is the question of how do peoples develop? What are the stages of human progress? Do the philosophers Voltaire and Herder have a relationship with the development of the philosophy of history? And what did he add to this philosophy in order to become what it is now? All these and other questions we answered in our research marked and divided into four chapters and the conclusion of the first chapter was a conceptual introduction containing four topics. The first topic was talking about the philosophy of history and we divided it into several points.

   As for the second chapter, it was talking about Voltaire's philosophy of history, and it had four topics. The first topic is the methodological foundations of Voltaire's philosophy of history. The second topic is the theory of progress in human thought. The third topic is Voltaire's theory of progress. The fourth topic is Voltaire's position on the religious interpretation of history.