There are two divisions of the philosophy of history —speculative and critical. Critical philosophy of history attempts to clarify the nature of the historian’s own inquiry. It criticizes the fundamental beliefs of the historian and analyzes the basic concepts he uses. This approach to the science of history asks such questions as: How does the historian come to understand the past? Is the historian's method of inquiry significantly different from the kind of inquiry found in the natural sciences? Can the historian be objective? Many contemporary philosophers are convinced that questions like these are the only legitimate problems left for the philosopher of history and that all attempts at formulating speculative theories about history must be abandoned.
Volume Two of this two-volume anthology—the finest survey of the subject to be published in recent years —contains selections from most of the important critical philosophers, including the following: Auguste Comte, John Stuart Mill, Wilhelm Dilthey, R. G. Col-lingwood, W. H. Walsh, Carl G. Hempel, William Dray, Maurice Mandelbaum, Rudolph H. Weingart-ner, Charles A. Beard, Carl L. Becker, A. I. Melden, Ernest Nagel, Raymon Aron, Raphael Demos, Sidney Hook, Isaiah Berlin, and Georges Florovsky.
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