Francis Fukuyama's Thought Of "The End Of History

Francis Fukuyama thinks that liberal democracy practiced in the West is "the end point of mankind's ideological evolution" and "the final form of human government", and that the history of competition of different ideologies and social systems came to its end, so he introduces "the end of history" which has aroused heated discussion.What "the end of history" suggests is not the occurrence of events, even large and grave events, but borrows from G W. F. Hegel's and Karl Marx's conception of history, viz., human society underwent from primitive to advanced types of human society, and the evolution of human societies would not be continuous when mankind had achieved a form of society that satisfied its deepest and most fundamental longings. Both thinkers posited an "end of history".The conception of "the end of history" was not initiated by Francis Fukuyama, but came from western religion and was developed by philosophers such as Kant, Hegel and Marx.In the cases of the collapse of the former Soviet Union and the upheaval of the Eastern Europe, Francis Fukuyama thinks there is no other ideology rival to the western liberal democracy. He is optimistic to the western societies, thinking liberal democracy is the end of human history. Analyzing the mechanisms of historical development, he claims scientific development provides a tendency of historical mechanism for human beings and ultimately leads human beings to their end. However, he separates scientific and economic development from social development. Though in his mind scientific and economic development provides a tendency of historical mechanism for human beings, the driving force of human beings is Hegel's "struggle for recognition", that is to say, "thymos" is regarded as the driving mechanism of the social development. Combining Hegel's historical philosophy with Plato's human nature, Francis Fukuyama thinks the western liberal democracy is a "universal and homogeneous state" and a state that could satisfy human's desire, reason and thymos. Analyzing international problems, he adopts Kant's "perpetual peace states", opposes realists' foreign policies that is power-supported andnational interest oriented and concentrates on "legitimacy", which means "the power of the powerless". In fact, he divides states according to their ideologies. As regards the world order, he divides the world into "historical world" and "post-historical world", the former threatening the latter, and advocates the abandon of the United Nations and the establishment of an International League of Democracies. The liberal democracy is a "universal and homogeneous state", in which "megalothymia" is essential. The critical point is how to provide rational outlets of promoting megalothymia. "Equality" is based on the respect of natural inequality. Therefore, isothymia and megalothymia both could be satisfied by the liberal democracy. Francis Fukuyama's theory is not perfect and is very similar to the "historicalism" criticized by Karl Popper. His historical prospect and the methodology of holisticism, evolutionism and essentialism are all challenged by Popper. Fukuyama's and Popper's are two different traditions of liberalism. Secondly, Fukuyama's thought and post-modernism are different but related. The consideration of science and technology as driving force of human beings is not correspondent to the anti-fundamentalism and anti-essentialism of the post-modernism. He advocates homogeneousness while post-modernism emphases cultural pluralism. Nevertheless, there are some common points between them and he attempts to surpass modernism. Other challenge of his thought is Samel Huntington "conflict of civilization", both being west-centered. "The end of history", the most perfect ideology of human beings, will always be a dream of human beings.The dissertation consists of seven chapters. The first chapter discusses the origin and the development of the theme: "the end of history". Chapter Two focuses on the background of the theme. In the third chapter, Fukuyama's illustratio...