Journal Article — The Dialectics of World-History: A Guiding Thread — by Mohammad H. Tamdgidi

In what follows, I will make an effort to sketch a dialectical conception of world-history in its broad outlines, critically integrating useful elements from the guiding threads found in Marx, Gurdjieff, and Mannheim. The purpose is to sketch an alternative guiding thread which incorporates human conscious and intentional action as a determining force in shaping major events, phases, and directions of world-historical change. Also central to the guiding thread is a conscious awareness of the divides in human inner and broader social life, of the dialectics of personal and global narratives shaping world-history in terms of the dialectics of part and whole. While the “objective” aspects of the world-historical development and the accidental nature of events are also accounted for, the role played by human agency in determining the direction of world-historical events is also acknowledged and incorporated into the structure of the narrative.