Conclusion:

This brief historical revision of philosophical views shows dissimilarity of history of philosophy approaches to clarifying the meaning and directedness of history but all of them are common in recognizing the basic problems of philosophy of history that are as the following: the meaning of history; direction of historical process; motive forces of history; the role and significance of mass of people and personality in history.

II. The idea of social progress plays an important role in the history of philosophy. Progress – is a type of development characterized by the transition from the lower to the higher, from inferior to superior. Progress is a contradictory process; it is always accompanied by regress, the descending development. Most of philosophers recognize the progressive character of mankind’s development; though some of them A.Pechchei and O.Toffler in particular insist on dangerous and harmful influence of progress on the development of civilization. The problem of the criteria of social progress is also in quest. Enlighteners of the XVIII century regarded human reason as the criterion of social progress; later the level of productive forces and production relations seemed to be such a criterion; at present day social-political, ideological, humanistic and other principles are set forth. At the same time all these criteria characterize various concrete spheres of social life but they do not expose the progress of society as a whole. The universal philosophical criterion of social progress deals with the humanization of society, the place and role of the personality, the measure of his social and spiritual freedom, the level of satisfaction of his material and spiritual needs and the possibilities of his self-realization and self-assertion.

History is the unity of discrete and continual where one can always distinguish the past – that, what has already occurred and what is unchangeable; the present – as real activity, though limited and conditioned by the circumstances of actual being; and the future – as an ideal, people aspire for.

So, reality, norm and ideal – these are human dimensions of history motion. History becomes real only when it supposes: the unity of discrete and continual;

historical memory as conscious keeping the line of human activity and life being; conscious activity that provides the possibility of future history;

coincidence of society’s existing psychological state with innovations of life; temporal dimension through the unity of reality, norms and ideals. Historical

Consciousness provides the continuity of the real history process; historical activity adds new forms and parameters to the unique line of the historical process flowing.

History is the forward motion towards social ideal, towards human unity. Man is always a system of needs, he is always unsatisfied with that he has got and he always aspires for the better. An interest is in fact a consistently oriented motive of activity colored with an emotional-axiological attitude. It is interest that helps to discover the means for satisfying the need, that is, for achieving the

goal. Social interests determine the de­gree of intensity and social significance of the entire scale of inter­ests of the individual or any other subject of activity, beginning with the smallest group or collective, for it is these groups, more than any other subject, take into account the real conditions and general direction of the development of the social system, ensuring thereby its preservation and progress.

Needs and interests — both personal and social —have a complex historically established structure, ranging from biological and ma­terial to the most refined ones —intellectual, moral, aesthetic, and so on. Social needs and interests are, as it were, the spring of the so­cial mechanism: they determine the direction and content of actions of both individuals and society as a whole. Social groups have their own ideals that are reflected by philosophy or some other social theory; each social group adds history its meaning.

There are various views as for motive forces of history: Fate (Democritus, Epicures), personalities (Machiavelli, Fichte), masses of people (Marx, Lenin), elite (Paretto, Lipinsky). People make their own history by actively transforming the conditions of their being first of all in the sphere of material production. In the depth of the old mode of production arises a conflict between accelerated productive forces and antiquated production relations; the balance achieved at a certain moment is then disrupted; a contradiction between them arises again, and becomes more and more acute, demanding resolution through social revolution. So social development takes place in a contradictory way including two opposite forms: evolution and revolution.

Social revolution – is a radical turn in society’s life meaning destruction of the old and confirmation of the new more progressive social system. Social revolution has a systemic character: as far as the whole formation is defined by

the economic mode of production, its turn is accompanied by more or less rapid fundamental changes in all other spheres of society’s life including political and intellectual-spiritual superstructure. Social revolution is a phenomenon of the universal character, it always exposes the objective, law-governed character; it is caused by both objective and subjective factors and reflects certain fundamental circumstances of social being. The meaning of history is revealed in social revolution as the necessity of coincidence of both man’s essential

forces and history development. Social revolution is not the same that a revolutionary turn. While social revolution changes the whole social-political

system and the form of power revolutionary turn is merely the change of the leading top.