20世纪的西方历史哲学与历史学一样,经历了一些比较剧烈的变化。如果说19世纪史学以注重对文献材料的考证而著名,那末20世纪的史学则在方法论方面作了进一步的探索,迅速扩大了历史研究的领域和史料应用的范围。历史学家的眼界扩大了,对历史意义的理解也与前人渐渐不同。历史哲学在西方起源于人们对历史运动轨迹的思索。在其起始阶段,18世纪的哲学家如伏尔泰、维柯、赫尔德等人相继对历史的发展作了阶段性划分。他们或者指出了历史的进步趋势,或者总结了各个历史阶段的相对意义。这种历史哲学的结论在19世纪的德国古典哲学中有所表现。黑格尔的历史哲学就是一个显 The 20th century Western philosophy of history, like history, has undergone some dramatic changes. If 19th century historiography focuses on textual research, the 20th century historiography has further explored methodology and rapidly expanded the field of historical research and the scope of historical data. Historians have broadened their horizons and their historical understanding has gradually changed from that of their predecessors. Historical philosophy originated in the West from the people thinking of the trajectory of history. In its initial stage, eighteenth-century philosophers such as Voltaire, Vico, Herder and others successively divided the development of history. They either pointed to the trend of historical progress or summed up the relative significance of various historical stages. The conclusion of this historical philosophy has been shown in the 19th century German classical philosophy. Hegel’s philosophy of history is a manifestation