A history of philosophy, therefore, is not so much a charting of that discipline’s past as a reliving and rethinking of it. In philosophy, however, ideas now current make little sense without understanding their origins, these being not only the clue to their meaning, but, usually, concepts that must be freshly reinterpreted themselves. A history of science can discuss past scientific concepts either as mistaken attempts to fill explanatory gaps (phlogiston, caloric, the ether) or as place-markers that have been subsequently given content (genes, heat, electricity) as superseded stages on a journey, or fads that are now abandoned. And whereas what counts as dirt is fairly obvious, what counts as philosophy is itself a philosophical problem. However thorough the cleaner (or author) has been, what will be commented on is the patch of dust they have missed. To write a history of philosophy is as thankless a task as cleaning a house.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |