The Philosophical Assumptions, Implicit and Explicit, of Arnold J. Toynbee’s Philosophy of History

THE THOMIST A SPECULATIVE QUARTERLY REVIEW OF THEOLOGY AND PHILOSOPHY EDITORS: THE DoMINICAN FATHERS oF THE PRoviNCE OF ST. JosEPH Publishers: The Thomist Press, Washington 17, D. C. VoJ.. XXV APRIL, 1962 No.2 THE PHILOSOPffiCAL ASSUMPTIONS, IMPLICIT AND EXPLICIT, OF ARNOLD J. TOYNBEE'S PffiLOSOPHY OF ffiSTORY INTRODUCTION 0 NE of the most characteristic elements in the worldview of contemporary man is the consciousness of historical time. Over and above the consciousness of physical time, shared by all rational creatures, the accelerated .social transformations of the last two centuries have given the man of today a peculiar awareness of the workings of the time process mhumart institutions. It is for this reason that our age shows an unprecedented interest in the historical sciences. It is natural enough, therefore, that certain minds should turn to " meta-historical " studies as they have been· called, philosophical interpretations of man's historical .process as it has been revealed by the labours of Palaeontology, Anthropology , Archaeology, and History. Among these studies, the work of Arnold Toynbee is outstanding.1 1 The present study is based upon Prufeaaor Toynbee'a principal work, A· Study of Hiato'I"'J (London: Oxford University Press) as published in 1955 (2nd Edition 201 JOHN THORNHILL Toynbee's essay, it should be emphasised, is not formally an historical work, but presupposes the labours of History properly so-called. The relationship between History, in the strict sense, and an interpretation of the historical process such as Toynbee has undertaken may be understood if their formal objects are compared. (Evidently, they are concerned with one and the same material object.) The formal object of History is the inteUigibility of the past, inaofar as it remains particularized, in the individualized historical situation.2 Meta-historical studies, on the other hand, seek an .understanding of the inteUigibility of the historical process which passes beyond the (}(Y(WTete historical situation to the universal laws and principles which are realized in the historical process. _ The intellectual light employed by the historian-his historical wisdom, one might say-is not necessarily expressed in universal philosophical principles, rathJ;!r it shows an affinity with prudential knowledge, intuitively comprehending a concrete situation. It is, in brief, a cultural affinity withthe object considered, with the ethos and outlook of the period under consideration; 8 only indirectly, therefore, would the historian employ the habit of philosophy. An interpretation of the historical process, on the other hand, precisely because it is seeking an understanding of the historical process's intelligibility in itself, must invoke as its light the principles of the intelligibility of all reality, namely principles arising from phi~osophical reflection. for Vols. I-VI); 1st Edition for Vols. "'11-X). In a number of briefer works Toynbee has presented various important aspects of his theoiy in essay form. This theory, however, is found in its entirety in A Sttuly of Hiatory. • The object of genuine historical scholarship is not, however, the superficial factual chaos of the newspaper but a deeper attaining of reality, in which the events of the past present an order, a hierarchy of significance, a pattern of casual relations. The worth of historical study will be measured by the extent to which it has comprehended this reality, and revealed the order which is to be found in it. Outstanding among recent studies on the nature of history u; the work of H. I. Marron, De la Ctmnaiaaance Hiatorique (Louvain, 1954). Cf. p. 47. . 8 It is the merit of Marron's work; just cited, to have established once and for all the importance of this aspect of historical method. ·Cf. Toynbee. ·A.. op. cit., pp. 287, 86, 66, 102, etc; ARNOLD J. TOYNBEE's PHILOSOPHY OF HISTORY ~08 It was only to be expected, therefore, that Arnold Toynbee's study of history, begun according to an empirical method- · Professor Toynbee constantly calls his work an " empirical study" 4-soon takes on a genuinely philosophical character. In his comparative study of history, the brilliance of Toynbee's powers of induction is recognized by even the most outspoken of his critics. There can be no doubt that induction has a real part to play in a comparative study...