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Philosophy of History

Code: 100302 ECTS Credits: 6
2025/2026
Degree Type Year
Philosophy OB 3

Contact

Name:
Begoņa Saez Tajafuerce
Email:
begonya.saez@uab.cat

Teaching groups languages

You can view this information at the end of this document.


Prerequisites

No former requirements apply to enrole the course


Objectives and Contextualisation

Philosophy of history as a philosophical discipline was born with modernity and acquired here part of its discourse and purpose that are not alien to the production of knowledge and the arrogation of power. In this way, history ceases to focus only on facts, in the manner of a science, and is constituted from the accounts of facts. In other words, History is stories. Hence, history, particularly in its hegemonic declination, constitutes a problem for philosophy with several edges, which we can specify in three philosophical areas: ontology or being as subject, epistemology or truth as force and ethics with politics or action as transformation.

In this context, the specific objectives of the course are the following:

1.To critically analyze the philosophical foundations of history as a discipline and as a story.
2.To explore the distinction between History (as an institutionalized discourse of the past) and Story (as a situated and plural narrative), from a relational perspective.
3.To unfold the ontological, epistemological and ethical-political implications of a philosophy of history that recognizes the plurality of worlds and ways of narrating and the knowledge that corresponds to them.
4.To incorporate non-hegemonic voices and perspectives in history and in its theoretical consideration: feminist, decolonial, indigenous and Afro-descendant.
5.To cultivate the sense of history as a central element for understanding current social challenges.
6.To promote the critical and situated relationship of students with the history of the territory to contribute to its counter-narrative.


Competences

  • Act within one's own area of knowledge, evaluating sex/gender-based inequalities.
  • Analysing and summarising the main arguments of fundamental texts of philosophy in its various disciplines.
  • Placing the most representative philosophical ideas and arguments of a period in their historical background and relating the most important authors of each period of any philosophical discipline.
  • Recognising and interpreting topics and problems of philosophy in its various disciplines.
  • Recognising the philosophical implications of the scientific knowledge.
  • Students must be capable of applying their knowledge to their work or vocation in a professional way and they should have building arguments and problem resolution skills within their area of study.
  • Students must be capable of collecting and interpreting relevant data (usually within their area of study) in order to make statements that reflect social, scientific or ethical relevant issues.
  • Students must be capable of communicating information, ideas, problems and solutions to both specialised and non-specialised audiences.
  • Students must develop the necessary learning skills to undertake further training with a high degree of autonomy.
  • Students must have and understand knowledge of an area of study built on the basis of general secondary education, and while it relies on some advanced textbooks it also includes some aspects coming from the forefront of its field of study.
  • Thinking in a critical and independent manner on the basis of the specific topics, debates and problems of philosophy, both historically and conceptually.
  • Using the symbology and procedures of the formal sciences in the analysis and building of arguments.

Learning Outcomes

  1. Analysing historical cases about scientific facts.
  2. Applying philosophical rigour in a written text following the international quality standards.
  3. Autonomously searching, selecting and processing information both from structured sources (databases, bibliographies, specialized magazines) and from across the network.
  4. Carrying out oral presentations using an appropriate academic vocabulary and style.
  5. Communicate by making non-sexist, non-discriminatory use of language.
  6. Communicating in the studied language in oral and written form, properly using vocabulary and grammar.
  7. Demonstrating a personal stance over a problem or controversy of philosophical nature, or a work of philosophical research.
  8. Distinguishing and analysing representative texts of the main genres of the philosophical literature.
  9. Documenting a philosophical issue and contrasting its sources.
  10. Establishing relationships between science, philosophy, art, religion, politics, etc.
  11. Explaining the philosophical importance of contemporary science and its implementation area.
  12. Identifying the main ideas of a related text and drawing a diagram.
  13. Indicating and discussing the main characteristics of the distinctive thought of a period and contextualizing them.
  14. Indicating and summarising the common content of several manifestations of various fields of culture.
  15. Organizing their own time and work resources: designing plans with priorities of objectives, calendars and action commitments.
  16. Producing an individual work that specifies the work plan and timing of activities.
  17. Reading thoroughly philosophical texts of the History of Philosophy.
  18. Recognising, with a critical eye, philosophical referents of the past and present and assessing its importance.
  19. Relating elements and factors involved in the development of scientific processes.
  20. Relating several ideas of the current philosophical debates.
  21. Relating the various orders of the philosophical ideas of different authors and historical moments.
  22. Rigorously building philosophical arguments.
  23. Solving problems autonomously.
  24. Summarising the topics and arguments exposed in a classical philosophical debate.

Content

Topic 1 - What is the philosophy of history today?     

       1. The philosophy of history: concepts around time
       2. History as a discipline, as a story and as an event.
       3. The question of the meaning of history: teleology, rupture and contingency.

Michel de Certeau – The writing of history (1975)

Walter Benjamin – On the concept of history (1940) Theses I and theses VI-X

Hannah Arendt – Between Past and Future (1961)

María Zambrano – Philosophy and poetry (1939) fragments

Simone Weil – The Iliad or the poem of force (1939) fragments

Topic 2 - From History to Story. The sense of / in memory.

       1. History as a modern-colonial device.
       2. Story as situated, relational and performative narrative.
       3. History as knowledge in / of the plural.

Topic 3 - A subject for history.

       1. From the spirit to the spectrum, passing through the testimony
       2. The validity of the myth and the universal subject
       3. Linearity, progress and national projects

Topic 4 – A truth for history

       1. History in a / as situated epistemology
       2. The material archive of history
       3. Philosophy, literature, art and/or history

Topic 5 – An action for history

       1. Politics of history and genealogies of power
       2. The historical narrative as a technology of domination
       3. Challenges for a minor history philosophy

Topic 6 - Artistic, activist and community practices as a philosophy of living history


Activities and Methodology

Title Hours ECTS Learning Outcomes
Type: Directed      
Presentation of the course. Theoretical expositions of main concepts. Commentary of significant texts. Assessment of course topics and methodology. 45 1.8 1, 5, 22, 8, 10, 11, 6, 4, 13, 17, 18, 20, 21, 19
Type: Supervised      
Tutoring 26 1.04 3, 5, 22, 7, 9, 11, 6, 4, 13, 15, 20, 21, 24
Type: Autonomous      
Preparation of topics and texts (dossier). Preparation of presentation. Preparation of text commentary 71.5 2.86 1, 5, 8, 9, 16, 6, 4, 12, 17, 20, 21, 23, 24

The teaching methodology is established based on three axes and emphasizes the social dimension of the subject's contents:

1. Reading and text analysis. The teaching program is organized around the syllabus and the corresponding mandatory readings. The texts will be worked on individually outside the classroom and shared in class, where the conceptual content will be developed. Hence the importance of attending and participating in class.

2. Theoretical classes. The classes will have the format of a master class as well as a seminar, with outstanding student participation.

3. Tutorials to develop individual and group assessment activities.

The Campus Virtual will be used. If it is necessary to establish contact with the teacher, it must be done during office hours and, exceptionally, via email. The written tests will be delivered in hard copy. In the case of telematic teaching, communication will be carried out by e-mail and through the Microsoft Teams platform.

If training activities relevant to the course content take place in the department or other relevant teaching contexts, it is advisable to attend them.

The course will integrate the ApS (Service-Learning) approach in collaboration with a local entity.

Note: 15 minutes of a class will be reserved, within the calendar established by the center/degree, for students to complete the teacher performance evaluation surveys and the subject/module evaluation.

Annotation: Within the schedule set by the centre or degree programme, 15 minutes of one class will be reserved for students to evaluate their lecturers and their courses or modules through questionnaires.


Assessment

Continous Assessment Activities

Title Weighting Hours ECTS Learning Outcomes
Final exam 50% 4 0.16 1, 2, 14, 3, 5, 22, 7, 8, 9, 16, 10, 11, 6, 4, 12, 13, 17, 15, 18, 20, 21, 19, 23, 24
Preparation and participation in class 10% 1 0.04 1, 2, 14, 3, 5, 22, 7, 8, 9, 16, 10, 11, 6, 4, 12, 13, 17, 15, 18, 20, 21, 19, 23, 24
Text commentary 20% Group Presentation 20% 40% 2.5 0.1 1, 2, 14, 3, 5, 22, 7, 8, 9, 16, 10, 11, 6, 4, 12, 13, 17, 15, 18, 20, 21, 19, 23, 24

The Department of Philosophy agreed that the subjects of the first semester would have two periods of concentration of evaluation activities and a week in which students could prepare specifically for the tests in the modality that each teacher will specify at the beginning of the course.

The dates for the review week and in which the tests will be concentrated are:

27 Oct.- 31 Oct.: review week or tutorials (one class will be dedicated to doing a self-evaluation questionnaire and the other class to reviewing doubts about the content and evaluation of the subject)

3 Nov. -7 Nov.: evaluation week

8-9-12-13-14 January: evaluation week

Erasmus students who request to advance an exam must present the teacher with a written document from their home university justifying their request.

The assessment of the course is continued and presupposes the attendance in class and the constant follow-up of the course. To pass the course, the final exam must be at least 5. If a student does not meet this condition, they must be submitted for reassessment. Any student, however, may be submitted to the re-assessment to increase the exam grades. The date of the final exam will coincide with the last day of classes.

										
										
																						
										
											The commentary and the group presentation are not subject to re-evaluation in any case. 

The student who has only carried out evaluation activities with a value of less than 30% will be assessed as non-evaluable.
There is no second call. The teacher will assign a day, hour and place of review of examination once they have evaluated the activities of the course and have put the global mark of qualification. The students that have to do the re-evaluation will have a specific day of review once they have done the aforementioned re-evaluation activity. Exam, text commentary and group presentation. The exam will consist of answering a question and elaborating a text commentary, according to the guidelines explained and worked in class and which is the basis of the group presentation.
Participation in class. Since the subject is formed as a seminar, the teacher will value the active participation in the class beyond the mandatory exposition. Prepare classes at home, expand content, make contributions, etc. These are activities that, apart from the value they have in the course evaluation, will help to round out the note.

SINGLE EVALUATION

Evidences: Exam (consisting of a question to be answered and a text commentary), Text commentary referring to oneof the texts included in the dossier, and Comparative Reading Exercise. All three evidences will be delivered on the same date.

Grade of evidences: Exam 50%, Text commentary 25% and Comparative Reading Exercise 25%.

  In the event that tests or exams cannot be taken onsite, they will be adapted to an online format made available through the UAB’s virtual tools (original weighting will be maintained). Homework, activities and class participation will be carried out through forums, wikis and/or discussion on Teams, etc. Lecturers will ensure that studentsare able to access these virtual tools, or will offer them feasible alternatives.

  In the event of a student committing any irregularity that may lead to a significant variation in the grade awarded to an assessment activity, the student will be given a zero for this activity,
  regardless of any disciplinaryprocess that may take place. In the event of several irregularities in assessment activities of the same subject, the student willbe given a zero as the final grade for this subject.

This subject allows the use of AI technologies exclusively for support tasks such as [***bibliographic or content-based searches, text correction or translations, where applicable].
In the case of subjects in a Modern Languages degree, use of translation must be specifically authorised by the teacher. Other specific situations may be contemplated, as deemed appropriate by the teacher.
The student must clearly (i) identify which parts have been generated using AI technology; (ii) specify the tools used; and (iii) include a critical reflection on how these have influenced the process and final outcome of the activity.
Lack of transparency regarding the use of AI in the assessed activity will be considered academic dishonesty; the corresponding grade may be lowered, or the work may even be awarded a zero.
In cases of greater infringement, more serious action may be taken.

 


Bibliography

The bibliography of the course will be indicated on the first day of class.


Software

No specfic software is required


Groups and Languages

Please note that this information is provisional until 30 November 2025. You can check it through this link. To consult the language you will need to enter the CODE of the subject.

Name Group Language Semester Turn
(PAUL) Classroom practices 1 Catalan first semester morning-mixed
(TE) Theory 1 Catalan first semester morning-mixed