Abstract
This essay examines the philosophy of history in the aftermath of the twentieth century. It argues that the philosophy of history has been both a catalyst and a victim of genocide. On the one hand, theories about the fated course of human development have been used to rationalize and justify imperialist, genocidal actions, especially insofar as they often placed the peoples and nations on the supposed right or wrong side of an imagined world-historical trajectory. On the other hand, the philosophy of history eventually collapsed under-and was delegitimized by-the weight of the last century's mounting catastrophes. The essay opens by briefly outlining the relationship between theodicy, universal history, and empire in the works of Immanuel Kant, G.W.F. Hegel, and Martin Heidegger before turning to the writings of a number of emigre intellectuals who came to criticize their respective philosophies of history in the wake of the Second World War. Thinkers such as Theodor Adorno, Hannah Arendt, Walter Benjamin, Carl G. Hempel, Karl Lowith, Leo Strauss, and Eric Voegelin either abandoned or sought to rewrite the philosophy of history in light of what they viewed not as progress, but as world-historical calamity. For contemporary intellectuals engaged in debates about the meaning and effects of modernization, globalization, and development, these writings remain necessary points of reference. The essay concludes by suggesting that if the philosophy of history is to be of any help in ongoing attempts to understand and confront contemporary genocide, then we must first reconsider its historical complicity with genocidal ideology.