Abstract
Examines the antihistorical dimension in the worldview of 19th-century German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860), whose belief in the dominance of the will and the unchanging senselessness and irrationality of life led him to discount the possibility of progress through political reform or revolution and to reject the epistemological value of history. This position set him apart from the mainstream 19th-century view that was heavily influenced by Georg Hegel (1770-1831). Schopenhauer saw the world as essentially timeless and considered that history in the form of knowledge of the past did not constitute a genuine science in the true sense of the term and could not provide a firm philosophical foundation. A careful reading of his work, however, shows that despite his criticism of history he was unable to fully exclude a historical and evolutionary component from his own philosophy.