LOOKING OVER YOUR SHOULDER - THE ONLOOKERS OF HEGELS PHENOMENOLOGY

The vexed issue of the end of history has again emerged with Fukuyama' s celebrated text. But Fukuyama is only the latest in a line of such H egelian thinkers. How have such philosopher-historians come to know th at history has ended? In returning to their source, Hegel's Phenomenol ogy, these theorists are found to ruthlessly fashion the very history that they relate. Using techniques akin to Foucaultian disciplines, th e historical onlookers impersonate, disinform and reconfigure unwillin g individuals to advance in history. This guidance becomes especially problematic when it is shown that the Hegelian onlookers are ignorant of their profound impact on history. When such influence is combined w ith ignorance the thinkers of the end of history appear quite harmful.