History and Political Philosophy

For Hobbes, Spinoza, and Locke, History is irrelevant to their model societies. Instead, Marx vacillates between conceiving it as a force that necessarily transforms Capitalism into Socialism, and as itself part of a world that must be changed.  For Nietzsche, it is a source of examples.  In contrast, it can be conceived as the precondition of what is now to be done, most generally, either a continuation of a status quo, or a variation of it, depending on how satisfactory it is.  So, Shakespeare might have the more accurate concept of History than any in this group--it is a prologue to subsequent action, though without the formal sharp distinction between the two that is a characteristic of Plays.  Rather, the transition is a constantly mobile one.  Accordingly, a Political Philosophy reflects its preconditions, as their extension, to a greater or lesser degree of similitude.