Philosophy in History

The sixteen essays in this volume confront the current debate about the relationship between philosophy and its history. On the one hand intellectual historians commonly accuse philosophers of writing bad - anachronistic - history of philosophy, and on the other, philosophers have accused intellectual historians of writing bad - antiquarian - history of philosophy. The essays here address this controversy and ask what purpose the history of philosophy should serve. Part I contains more purely theoretical and methodological discussion, of such questions as whether there are ‘timeless’ philosophical problems, whether the issues of one epoch are commensurable with those of another, and what style is appropriate to the historiography of the subject. The essays in Part II consider a number of case-histories. They present important revisionist scholarship and original contributions on topics drawn from ancient, early modern and more recent philosophy. All the essays have been specially commissioned, and the contributors include many of the leading figures in the field. The volume as a whole will be of vital interest to everyone concerned with the study of philosophy and of its history.

Preface; Introduction; Part I: 1. Philosophy and its history Charles Taylor; 2. The relationship of philosophy to its past Alasdair MacIntyre; 3. The historiography of philosophy: four genres Richard Rorty; 4. Why do we study the history of philosophy? Lorenz Krüger; 5. Five parables Ian Hacking; 6. Seven thinkers and how they grew: Descartes, Spinoza, Leibniz; Locke, Berkeley, Hume; Kant Bruce Kuklick; 7. ‘Interesting questions’ in the history of philosophy and elsewhere Wolf Lepenies; 8. The divine corporation and the history of ethics J. B. Schneewind; 9. The idea of negative liberty: philosophical and historical perspectives Quentin Skinner; Part II: 10. The sceptic in his place and time M. F. Burnyeat; 11. The sceptic’s two kinds of assent and the question of the possibility of knowledge Michael Frede; 12. The concept of ‘trust’ in the politics of John Locke John Dunn; 13. Berkeley and Hume: a question of influence Michael Ayres; 14. Frege: the early years Hans Sluga; 15. Moore’s rejection of idealism Thomas Baldwin; 16. The nature of the proposition and the revolt against idealism Peter Hylton; Index.