We discussed discuss responses to Hegel’s philosophy of history.  

We looked at Popper - see here and here (-sections 1,2,8).  Popper is best known as a philosopher of science.  He said that scientific claims were of the type “if A happens, then B will happen”, or if just “B happens” (and he used the example of eclipses), then this is based on “laws” derived from proper experiments designed to falsify the laws and sitting within the scientific paradigm of the age.  But history does not work like that.  It is not valid to derive laws from historic trends.  The danger in doing so is that it leads to a vision of a utopia, which is to be engineered and individual liberties are over-ridden and denied.  Democracy dioesn’t determine who rules, but it gives the opportunity to dismiss a bad government.  He thought the elected government should focus on righting clear present flaws and injustices rather than chasing an ideal. We found Kierkegaarde difficult.  He objected to Hegel’s rationality, claiming faith is a better guide to living.  We discussed the concept of faith - a belief which is not knowledge, because it cannot be falsified or verified.