Ideas of humanism in the works of English writers and historians as a tool for understanding and transforming the socio-political system

English historians and philosophers of the 18th century were quite successful in studying the legacy of antiquity. The article is devoted to the study of the motives and reasons for the 18th-century English historians’ turn to ancient history and to determining the ideological and theoretical basis of their works. It is noted that the historiography of antiquity is the least studied aspect of the English Enlightenment. The focus is on the works of E. Gibbon, W. Mitford, and others. The interpretation of the historiosophical texts of ancient historians by English Enlighteners allows us to judge the content of political debates about the systems of English governance in the 18th century, since English writers and historians, who idealized the ideas of humanism, compared in their works the social and political structure of contemporary England and antiquity as it appeared to them when reading and commenting on the causes of historical events. Thus, historical works created in the ancient era and studied by English thinkers contributed to the formation of the methodology and philosophy of history in 18th-century England.

antiquity, Enlightenment, English Enlighteners, statehood, forms of government, political ideal