AccScience Publishing / BIJP / Volume 15 / Issue 4 / DOI: 10.29228/beytulhikme.87223
Submit to BIJP
Cite this article
1
Views
Related Info Links
Google Scholar
More by Authors Links
ALPER BİLGEHAN YARDIMCI
Journal Browser
Volume | Year
Issue
Search
Forthcoming Issue
Current Issue
View All
News and Announcements
View All
RESEARCH ARTICLE

Herodotus and the Philosophy of History: Narrative, Ethical and Philosophical Dimensions of the Histories

ALPER BİLGEHAN YARDIMCI1
Show Less
1 Pamukkale Üniversitesi, İnsan ve Toplum Bilimleri Fakültesi, Felsefe Bölümü 20160, Denizli, Türkiye
BIJP 2025, 15(4), 1497–1515; https://doi.org/10.29228/beytulhikme.87223
Received: 10 September 2025 | Published online: 29 December 2025
© 2025 by the Authors. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution -Noncommercial 4.0 International License (CC-by the license) ( https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ )
Download PDF
XML
Cite
Abstract

This article approaches Herodotus’s Histories as an inquiry that transforms the mere recording of events into a reflective explanation. It highlights three concrete contributions: plural narration with explicit source criticism, a "double causality" that spans natural, human, and divine affairs, and ethnographic comparison that frames ethical questions about hubris, fortune, and custom. In doing so, the article also underscores the moral and universal dimension of Herodotus’s vision, where human responsibility intersects with divine order. Placing Herodotus in a heuristic dialogue with Hegel, Collingwood, Ricoeur, White, and Koselleck, the study shows how his practice illuminates modern concerns with freedom and necessity, reenactment, narrative time, emplotment, and the tension between experience and expectation. However, rather than imposing modern categories anachronistically, it is argued that Herodotus can be regarded not only as the father of history but also as a precursor of the philosophy of history by establishing the conditions for historical meaning-making.

Keywords
Herodotus
histories
philosophy of history
historiography.
References
  1. Aristotle. (1933). Metaphysics (Hugh Tredennick, Trans.; Vol. 1). Harvard University Press.
  2. Aristotle. (1996). Poetics (Malcolm Heath, Trans.). Penguin Books.
  3. Bowen, A. (1992). Introduction. In Plutarch: The Malice of Herodotus (De malignitate Herodoti) (pp. vii–xx). Aris & Phillips.
  4. Champion, C. B. (2013). Historiographic Patterns and Historical Obstacles in Polybius’ Histories: Marcellus, Flaminius, and the Mamertine crisis. In B. G. & C. Harrison (Ed.), Polybius and His World: Essays in Memory of F. W. Walbank (pp. 143–158). Oxford University Press.
  5. Collingwood, R. G. (1994). The Idea of History. Oxford University Press.
  6. Dale, A. (2015). Walwet and Kukalim: Lydian Coin Legends, Dynastic Succession, and the Chronology of Mermnad Kings. 54(1/2), 151–166. https://doi.org/10.1515/kadmos-2015-0008
  7. Danto, A. C. (1965). Analytical Philosophy of History. Cambridge University Press.
  8. Dench, E. (2007). Ethnography and History. In J. Marincola (Ed.), A Companion to Greek and Roman Historiography (pp. 471–480). Blackwell Publishing.
  9. Dewald, C. (1987). Narrative Surface and Authorial Voice in Herodotus’ Histories. Arethusa 20(1/2), 147–170.
  10. Dewald, C. (2007). The Construction of Meaning in the First Three Historians. In J. Marincola (Ed.), A Companion to Greek and Roman Historiography (pp. 471–480). Blackwell.
  11. Dueck, D. (1999). The Date and Method of Composition of Strabo’s Geography. 127(4), 467–478.
  12. Elsner, J. (1992). Pausanias: A Greek Pilgrim in the Roman World. Past & Present, 135, 3–29.
  13. Evans, J. A. S. (1968). Father of History or Father of Lies: The Reputation of Herodotus. Classical Journal, 64(1), 11–17.
  14. Foley, A. (2016). Valla’s Herodotean Labours: Towards a New View of Herodotus in the Italian Renaissance. In J. P. & V. Zali (Ed.), Brill’s Companion to the Reception of Herodotus from Antiquity and Beyond (pp. 213–231). Brill.
  15. Gadamer, H.-G. (2004). Truth and Method (J. W. & D. G. Marshall, Ed. & Trans.). Continuum.
  16. Gould, J. (1989). Herodotus. Weidenfeld and Nicolson.
  17. Grant, J. R. (1983). Some Thoughts on Herodotus. Phoenix, 37(4), 283–298. https://doi.org/10.2307/1088150
  18. Grethlein, J. (2011). Historia Magistra Vitae in Herodotus and Thucydides? The Exemplary Use of the Past and Ancient and Modern Temporalities. In A. Lianeri (Ed.), The Western Time of Ancient History: Historiographical Encounters with the Greek and Roman Pasts (pp. 247–263). Cambridge University Press.
  19. Harrison, T. (1998). Herodotus’ Conception of Foreign Languages. Histos, 2, 1–45. https://doi.org/10.29173/histos172.
  20. Harrison, T. (2018). The Moral of History. In T. H. & E. Irwin (Ed.), Interpreting Herodotus (pp. 335–355). Oxford University Press.
  21. Hau, L. I. (2016). Moral History from Herodotus to Diodorus Siculus. Edinburgh University Press.
  22. Hegel, G. W. F. (1988). Introduction to the Philosophy of History (L. Rauch, Trans.). Hackett Publishing.
  23. Herodotus. (2013). The Complete Works of Herodotus (A. D. Godley, Trans.). Delphi Classics.
  24. Immerwahr, H. R. (1966). Form and Thought in Herodotus. Press of Western Reserve University.
  25. Kirkland, N. B. (2022). Herodotus and Imperial Greek Literature: Criticism, Imitation, Reception. Oxford University Press.
  26. Koselleck, R. (1985). Futures Past: On the Semantics of Historical Time (K. Tribe, Trans.). MIT Press.
  27. Lateiner, D. (1989). The Historical Method of Herodotus. University of Toronto Press.
  28. Lesky, A. (1966). A History of Greek Literature (J. Willis & C. de Heer, Trans.). Methuen.
  29. Lloyd, A. B. (1975). Herodotus: Book II. Commentary 99-182. Brill.
  30. Moles, J. (1993). Livy’s Preface. Proceedings of the Cambridge Philological Society 39, 141–168.
  31. Momigliano, A. (1966). Studies in Historiography. Weidenfeld and Nicolson.
  32. Momigliano, A. (1982). The Origins of Universal History. Annali della Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa, 12(2), 533–560.
  33. Momigliano, A. (1990). The Classical Foundations of Modern Historiography. University of California Press.
  34. Munson, R. V. (2012). Herodotus and the Heroic Age: The Case of Minos. In E. B. & M. de Bakker (Ed.), Myth, Truth, and Narrative in Herodotus (pp. 195–212). Oxford University Press.
  35. Murray, O. (1980). Early Greece. Fontana Press.
  36. Murray, O. (2001). Herodotus and Oral History. In N. Luraghi (Ed.), The Historian’s Craft in the Age of Herodotus (pp. 16–44). Oxford University Press.
  37. Pelling, C. (2006). Educating Croesus: Talking and Learning in Herodotus’ Lydian Logos. 25(1), 141–177. https://doi.org/10.1525/ca.2006.25.1.141
  38. Plato. (2004). Republic (C. D. C. Reeve, Trans.). Hackett Publishing.
  39. Plato. (2015). Laws 1 and 2 (S. S. Meyer, Trans.). Oxford University Press.
  40. Ricoeur, P. (1984). Time and Narrative (K. M. & D. Pellauer, Trans.). University of Chicago Press.
  41. Shapiro, S. (1996). Herodotus and Solon. 91(4), 348–364. https://doi.org/10.2307/25011045
  42. Sheehan, M. (2018). A Guide to Reading Herodotus’ Histories. Bloomsbury.
  43. Thomas, R. (2011). Thucydides and Social Change: Between Akribeia and Universality (A. Lianeri, Trans.). In The Western Time of Ancient History: Historiographical Encounters with the Greek and Roman Pasts (pp. 229–246). Cambridge University Press.
  44. Thucydides. (2009). The Peloponnesian War (M. Hammond, Trans.). Oxford University Press.
  45. Walsh, W. H. (1967). Philosophy of History: An Introduction. Harper & Row.
  46. West, S. (1991). Herodotus’ Portrait of Hecataeus. 111, 144–160. https://doi.org/10.2307/631892
  47. White, H. (1973). Metahistory: The Historical Imagination in Nineteenth-Century Europe. Johns Hopkins University Press.
Share
Back to top
Beytulhikme An International Journal of Philosophy, Print ISSN: 1303-8303, Published by AccScience Publishing
We use cookies on our website to ensure you get the best experience.
Read more about our cookies here
Accept