Edward Gibbon and the Civilizational Perspective

TODAY IN PHILOSOPHY OF HISTORY: Edward Gibbon and the Civilizational Perspective

Wednesday 08 May 2024 is the 287th anniversary of the birth of Edward Gibbon (08 May 1737 to 16 January 1794), who was born on this date in 1737.

Gibbon is possibly the greatest Anglophone historian to date, and his monumental Enlightenment history of the decline and fall of Rome has influenced all subsequent history. What philosophical themes, if any, do we find in Gibbon? Does he exemplify the deflationary history implied by Hume? Can Enlightenment history be objective, or must it impose its universalist template on all history, regardless of the scope of a given historical inquiry? In what way does Gibbon exhibit a civilizational perspective on history?

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