Humanity, History, Political Philosophy

The turning of Philosophical attention to History, by Kant, Hegel, and Marx, yields, under the influences of Enlightenment Optimism and Theological Messianism, a concept of the human species as progressing over the centuries.  In contrast, Nietzsche, Spengler, and Heidegger, conceive the trend as, conversely, degenerative.  Now, hampering both sides of the disagreement are both an insufficient set of facts and commitments to contingent theses.  For, in the subsequent century alone, the species has achieved an unprecedented unity and control over Nature, to the extent that it has demonstrated the capacity both to destroy itself en masse, and, even, to leave the planet.  So, on Nietzsche's criterion, the Will to Power of the species has been on the ascent, whether or not any other of the traditional grounds of assessment are still relevant.  So, the more modest interpretation of the History of species, based on the available evidence, is that it is a work-in-progress, with respect to which any theorizing, e. g. Political Philosophy, is a contingent endeavor.