End of History (theory)

Extracted Attributes

• Core Idea

  A particular political, economic, or social system represents the ultimate stage of human societal evolution and the final form of government.

• Distinction

  Differs from 'end of the world' concepts; proposes a state where human life continues indefinitely but ideological evolution has ceased.

• Concept Type

  Political and Philosophical Concept

• Influenced By

  Vladimir Solovyov

• Key Proponent

  Francis Fukuyama

• Context of Prominence

  Post-Cold War, dissolution of the Soviet Union, ascendancy of Western liberal democracy

• Key Publication (Book)

  The End of History and the Last Man

• Key Publication (Essay)

  The End of History?

• Publication Year (Book)

  1992

• Fukuyama's Clarification

  Does not imply a world free from conflict, nor the disappearance of culture as a distinguishing characteristic of societies.

• Publication Year (Essay)

  1989

Timeline

• Francis Fukuyama publishes the essay "The End of History?" in The National Interest, stirring significant interest and controversy. (Source: Web Search Results)

  1989-XX-XX

• The Berlin Wall falls, a key event preceding the dissolution of the Soviet Union and providing context for Fukuyama's thesis. (Source: Web Search Results)

  1989-11-09

• The Soviet Union dissolves, marking the end of the Cold War and the ascendancy of Western liberal democracy, which Fukuyama argued was the 'end-point of mankind's ideological evolution'. (Source: Web Search Results)

  1991-12-26

• Francis Fukuyama expands his essay into the book *The End of History and the Last Man*, further detailing his theory. (Source: Summary, Wikipedia, Web Search Results)

  1992-XX-XX

• Following the September 11 attacks, the 'End of History' theory is cited by some commentators as a symbol of Western naiveté and undue optimism. (Source: Web Search Results)

  2001-09-11

• Francis Fukuyama responds to criticism of his thesis in a Wall Street Journal opinion piece, clarifying that his theory does not imply a world free from conflict. (Source: Web Search Results)

  2001-10-XX

• Fukuyama provides an afterword to a new printing of *The End of History*, explaining that he did not believe in a rigid form of historicism, but rather in historical trends. (Source: Web Search Results)

  2006-XX-XX

End of history

The end of history is a political and philosophical concept that supposes that a particular political, economic, or social system may develop that would constitute the end-point of humanity's sociocultural evolution and the final form of human government. A variety of authors have argued that a particular system is the "end of history" including Thomas More in Utopia, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, Vladimir Solovyov, Alexandre Kojève, and Francis Fukuyama in the 1992 book, The End of History and the Last Man.

Web Search Results

• End of History by Francis Fukuyama: A Critique | by Shahid H. Raja

  The End of History is a political and philosophical concept that supposes that a particular political, economic, or social system may develop that would constitute the endpoint of humanity’s sociocultural evolution and the final form of human government. 1. Hegelian Framework [...] After the fall of the Soviet Union, Francis Fukuyama attempted to provide a new paradigm for academia and policymakers to understand international relations. He argued that after the decline of communism, and the emergence of democracy, humankind had reached an endpoint in ideological evolution, what he called the End of History. Henceforth, he maintains, the world would be dominated by liberal democracies less inclined to go to war with each other and more interested in cooperation to maintain [...] What was the essence of the End of History thesis? Well, the idea behind this thesis is very simple and can be explained easily. However, before reading his thesis, kindly remember that the concept of an End of History differs from ideas of an end of the world as expressed in various religions, which may forecast the destruction of the Earth or of life on Earth, and the end of the human race as we know it. The End of History instead proposes a state in which human life continues indefinitely

• The End of History and the Last Man - Wikipedia

  The End of History and the Last Man is a 1992 book of political philosophy by American political scientist Francis Fukuyama which argues that with the ascendancy of Western liberal democracy—which occurred after the Cold War (1945–1991) and the dissolution of the Soviet Union (1991)—humanity has reached "not just ... the passing of a particular period of post-war history, but the end of history as such: That is, the end-point of mankind's ideological evolution and the universalization of [...] After the September 11 attacks, The End of History was cited by some commentators as a symbol of the supposed naiveté and undue optimism of the Western world during the 1990s, in thinking that the end of the Cold War also represented the end of major global conflict. In the weeks after the attacks, Fareed Zakaria called the events "the end of the end of history", while George Will wrote that history had "returned from vacation". [...] In October 2001, Fukuyama, in a Wall Street Journal opinion piece, responded to criticism of his thesis after the September 11 attacks, saying, "I believe that in the end I remain right". He explained that what he meant by "End of History" was the evolution of human political system, toward that of the "liberal-democratic West". He also noted that his original thesis "does not imply a world free from conflict, nor the disappearance of culture as a distinguishing characteristic of societies".

• The End of History and The Last Man and Liberalism and Its ...

  Idealistic model / The End of History is an impressive construction, from which much can be learned, but it also shows some major weaknesses. The first broad weakness lies in its underlying model of the state: an idealistic Hegelian state supposed to be like God on earth. It is not surprising that, as Fukuyama notes, [...] Historicism is the theory that immutable laws preside over the development of history. Karl Popper, the well-known philosopher of science, persuasively argued in a series of articles in Economica in 1944 and 1945 that such “laws” don’t exist in the scientific sense; only historical trends exist, but their persistence is not guaranteed. Fukuyama did not claim more than that: in a 2006 afterword to a new printing of The End of History, he explained that he did not believe in a rigid form of [...] ## The End of History The genesis of the 1992 book was a 1989 essay, titled simply “The End of History,” that Fukuyama published in The National Interest. The essay and book appeared at a time of great promise: the Berlin Wall fell in 1989, the Soviet Union dissolved in 1991, and China was opening to capitalism and experiencing internal demands for greater liberalization—until Tiananmen Square in 1989.

• Francis Fukuyama and the end of History - The New Criterion

  One of the most serious moral problems with the idea of the end of History is that it implacably transforms everything outside the purview of the theory into a historical “accident” or exception, draining it of moral significance. Hegel’s system tells us what has to happen; what actually does happen turns out not to matter much. Francis Fukuyama admits that “we have no guarantees” that the future will not produce more Hitlers or Pol Pots. But in his view, evil, e.g. the evil which produced the [...] What we are witnessing is not just the end of the Cold War, or a passing of a particular period of postwar history, but the end of history as such: that is, the end point of mankind’s ideological evolution and the universalization of Western liberal democracy as the final form of human government. [...] allowing mankind the greatest freedom possible, had triumphed because it best instantiated the ideal. In this sense, what Mr. Fukuyama envisaged was not the end of history—understood as the lower-case realm of daily occasions and events—but the end of History: an evolutionary process that represented freedom’s self-realization in the world. The “end” he had in mind was in the nature of a telos: more “fulfillment” than “completion” or “finish.”

• The End of History: Francis Fukuyama's controversial idea explained

  Hegel had argued that history has a telos or goal – an end point – equivalent to the emergence of a perfectly rational and just state. That state would guarantee the liberty necessary for the full development of all human capacities. At the same time, it would exist in a state of perpetual peace with other – similarly configured – states. [...] Fukuyama became one of those academics whose work was cribbed to a shorthand: The End of History. It is, no doubt, a memorable and dramatic phrase – but it is as unclear as it is striking. Put very simply, by “the end of history,” Fukuyama did not mean that we had reached a stage where nothing else would occur of historical significance – that all problems had been solved and politics would now be smooth-sailing. [...] In 1989, a policy wonk in the US State Department wrote a paper for the right-leaning international relations magazine The National Interest entitled “The End of History?”. His name was Francis Fukuyama, and the paper stirred such interest – and caused such controversy – that he was soon contracted to expand his 18-page article into a book. He did so in 1992: The End of History and the Last Man. The rest, they say, is (the end of) history.