Skip to content
TrackPodcasts
societyJan 6, 201453:46pending

Is There a Purpose to History?

Free Thoughts

About this episode

Jason Kuznicki, a research fellow at the Cato Institute and editor of Cato Unbound, joins Aaron and Trevor to discuss historicism: the idea that historical forces work to determine the ideas and values of individuals, and that as a result, historical trends have a direction or purpose to them.

To understand a person or event in history, you need to look at their historical context. That’s not so crazy all by itself—it’s actually pretty reasonable. But the trouble starts when historicist thinking begins to deny individual agency. Not always—but very often—historicism is at odds with methodological individualism.


Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Get every episode summarized

Each time Free Thoughts publishes, we email you a written briefing from the transcript — the topics, who appeared, and any specific claims, with the ad reads skipped.

Email me new episodes

Free for 3 shows. No card needed.

No transcript yet

This episode has not been transcribed. Request it and it moves to the front of the queue.

Is There a Purpose to History?

Free Thoughts

0:00
53:46

More episodes

More from Free Thoughts

View all episodes →