Historical reality is the fundamental foundation of human being as a social being. It acquires the status of an all-encompassing reality, since outside of it the existence of any objects seems to be very problematic, and therefore, together with historical consciousness, they appear as philosophical problems of the social sciences. The historical process, understood in this way, acquires the qualities of the ontological foundation of all things. At the same time, there is an opinion that history is the embodiment of a changeable, enduring.
Yes, of course, history, understood as a heap of random events, disparate facts, does not create a sense of stability and constancy. This is an external, superficial understanding of the nature of historical reality. The philosophical problems of science also lie in the fact that if we consider history as a single, unidirectional process within which changes are possible, in this case history can act as an ontological basis. This process unfolds and exists due to the activity of the historical subject comprehending it. The perception, cognition and interpretation of the historical process by the subject occurs through the representation of the “idea of history” in the historical consciousness as the philosophical problem of science organically including the philosophical problems of the natural sciences.
The historical process, like other philosophical problems of the social sciences, is a subject field for a large number of natural scientific disciplines. Given the specifics of this subject of study, its objective reflection is possible only at a theoretical level. Mankind has developed several paradigms of awareness of history: theological, philosophical and scientific. But of these, it is philosophy that enables the scientist to reflect on historical reality at a high categorical level, which in potentiality can be expressed in the form of general historical theories. In them, empirical history is combined with theoretical history, and a synthesis of historical and logical in conceptual form takes place.
The picture of social reality can be fixed in the behavior of people, in the nature of their value orientations, in the forms of political organization and, in the so-called “idea of history”. The philosophical problems of the social sciences and humanities, including the “idea of history”, appear in this context as a special dynamic entity whose purpose is to overcome the contradictions of being in the course of everyday activities.
A philosophically understood idea acts as a definite source of not only theoretical, but also a practically spiritual, value attitude to reality. Understood in this context, the “idea of history” seems to be a theoretical worldview and methodological entity. It acts as an ontological prerequisite for the existence of a historical person: it is a person’s self-awareness in time through his experience. It is the concept of “idea of history” that allows you to grasp and express the continuous process of social being in the space of historical dimension.
A person always lives in history, but only when he begins to understand its special value and significance, does a holistic historical and philosophical concept arise, in fact, the philosophical problems of the social sciences and humanities are formed, the main task of which is to express this value by rational means, to present it in the form of a systematized “idea stories". In the work of the historian, the “idea of history” contributes to the formation of an integral image of the historical process. At the same time, each era has its own specific idea of the “idea of history", which is the basic element of the picture of social reality. The dynamics of social life leads to a change in the picture of social reality, which entails a change in the "idea of history." Following this logic, we come to the conclusion about the historicity of the very concept of "idea of history."