End of history
The End of History and the Last Man is a 1992 book by Francis Fukuyama, expanding on his 1989 essay "The End of History?", in which he argues the controversial thesis that the end of the Cold War signals the end of the progression of human history:
- "What we may be witnessing in not just the end of the Cold War, or 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 Western liberal democracy as the final form of human government." (quoted from "The End of History?", 1989)
Samuel P. Huntington responded that history is not over. In his essay and book, The Clash of Civilizations, Huntington argues that the temporary conflict between ideologies is replaced by the ancient conflict between civilizations. The dominant civilization decides the form of human government, and these will not be constant.
Fukuyama himself later conceded that his thesis was wrong, but for a different reason: "we hadn't reached the end of history because we hadn't yet reached the end of science" (quoted from front flap of Our Posthuman Future). Fukuyama predicts that humanity's control of its own evolution will have a great and possibly terrible effect on the liberal democracy, because the liberal democracy assumes that all human beings are created equal, a fact that technology may change.
It has been argued that Fukuyama's notion of "The End of History" is merely a Hegelian articulation of the Whig interpretation of history.
Publication history
See also
