Snooks, Graeme Donald - The laws of history

Philosophers and scientists down through the ages have grappled with the polarizing concepts of the eternal and the ephemeral in human society. Some identify the ephemeral with everyday reality and the eternal with an underlying process of systematic change, while others see the eternal reflected in a changeless ‘reality’ lying behind the ephemeral appearances of the everyday. Most, however, appear content with the appearances of a surface reality.

Those who seek the eternal in changeless forms—in an ideal world—see change either as the annihilation of a past ideal or as the way to a future ideal. As ideal forms can only be explored metaphysically, these philosophers seek a knowledge of the eternal through imagined ‘laws’ of destiny. Their ideas are translated into action by attempting either to eliminate change, or to exploit it to achieve their vision of a better world. In this they are no friends of the Dynamic Society.