What is and to What End do We Study Universal History?

In 1789, the world was electrified with an idea that all men are created equal and endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights. If this proposition be true, then the entire paradigm of government practiced since ancient times had to be completely transformed from systems of hereditary power enforcing the rule of might makes right into a system of consent of the governed where all citizens were considered sovereign.

Among the most enthusiastic advocates and defenders of this higher conception of statecraft was the poet, philosopher and historian Friedrich Schiller (1759-1805).

In this reading of Schiller’s first history lecture delivered to students at Jena university during the opening months of the French Revolution, we delve into the method of analysis Schiller used to shape a new school of science of universal history. Titled ‘What is and to what end do we study universal history?’, Schiller explores those universal characteristics of humanity and statecraft which must be understood by all truth seeker desirous of cutting through the false narratives of history.

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