摘 要： 我们试图对康德以来的普遍历史观念稍作评论。这种反思的前提是从普遍历史的过去视角以及在实践上规划好的未来的视角看来的对全球性现状的思考，其中的任何一方面，都不是试图通过指出可怕的后果或者任何其他方式，为人类恐怖的非人道行为的历史记录进行辩护。首先通过对发展的思想中什么是活的、什么是死的这个问题的回答,对18世纪和19世纪早期的历史哲学作一些反思；其次,对历史哲学中的“进步的辩证法”及其后关于社会变革的一般理论提出某些思考，并对“进步”的成本和收益有一个更加清楚的认识；最后，从上述的批判历史反思的视角来对全球现代性的当代话语稍作评论。
关键词： 历史哲学； 普遍历史观念； 进步的辩证法； 全球现代性的当代话语
Remarks on the Idea of Universal History in the Wake of Kant
Thomas McCarthy
Abstract: We try to present some remarks on the idea of universal history in the wake of Kant. Our reflections start from the premise that it can be no part of thinking about the global present in terms of the universal-historical past and with an eye to a practically projected future that we try to justify the historical record of humankind’s horrific inhumanity by pointing to desirable outcomes, or in any other way. I shall begin（I） with some reflections on the philosophy of history in the eighteenth and earlier nineteenth centuries, and then offer （II） some thoughts on the “dialectic of progress” in those philosophies and in the general theories of social change that succeeded them. The major burden of these two sections is to sort out what is living and what is dead in developmental thinking and to get clearer about the costs and benefits of “progress.” I shall conclude with（III） some remarks on the contemporary discourse of global modernity from the perspective of the preceding critical-historical reflections.
Key words: philosophy of history; the idea of universal history; dialectic of progress; contemporary discourse of global modernity
