Q0585
“History is a discipline that has a large number of approaches. Its…” — Ibn Khaldun (Muqaddimah, Introduction (Rosenthal))
Verified English quotation. Primary source: Muqaddimah, Introduction (Rosenthal). Theme: time.
English
History is a discipline that has a large number of approaches. Its useful aspects are very many. Its goal is distinguished.
Source and attribution
The archive attributes this English wording to Muqaddimah, Introduction (Rosenthal) and files it under Islamic Philosophy. That locator distinguishes the passage from loose internet attributions: readers can return to the named work or section to check translation, surrounding argument, and edition-specific wording.
About Ibn Khaldun
Ibn Khaldūn (1332–1406) served courts across the Maghrib and Egypt before composing the Muqaddimah as a prolegomenon to his universal history. Drawing on political experience, he treated history as a science of social causes rather than a chronicle of wonders.
How to read this passage
Is time a river, a dimension, or a structure of consciousness? Augustine, Bergson, and modern metaphysics offer rival pictures while ethics asks how finite time should be spent. This passage enters that discussion through time, method, knowledge.
Concepts in this quote
- Time
- Philosophy of time asks what tense and duration are—and how memory, death, and history shape a human life.
- Method
- Method appears in this archive as a live philosophical concern—not a slogan. These verified English passages show how thinkers treat method as a problem of judgment, practice, or explanation.
- Knowledge
- Knowledge is the philosophical study of what we can justifiably claim to know—and where certainty ends.
How to cite this quotation
APA: Ibn Khaldun. (n.d.). History is a discipline that has a large number of approaches. Its useful aspects are very many. Its goal is distinguished. In Philosophy Blind Box. https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0585
MLA: Ibn Khaldun. “History is a discipline that has a large….” Philosophy Blind Box, https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0585.
Chicago: Ibn Khaldun. “History is a discipline that has a large….” Philosophy Blind Box. Accessed 2026. https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0585.
Frequently asked questions
What is the source of the quotation “History is a discipline that has a large…”?
The passage is attributed to Ibn Khaldun, Muqaddimah, Introduction (Rosenthal). The archive attributes this English wording to Muqaddimah, Introduction (Rosenthal) and files it under Islamic Philosophy. That locator distinguishes the passage from loose internet attributions: readers can return to the named work or section to check translation, surrounding argument, and edition-specific wording.
What does Ibn Khaldun mean by time?
Is time a river, a dimension, or a structure of consciousness? Augustine, Bergson, and modern metaphysics offer rival pictures while ethics asks how finite time should be spent. This passage enters that discussion through time, method, knowledge.