The History of Philosophy: A Dialogue with the Past?

Abstract: As a historian of philosophy, I find myself increasingly challenged to find a satisfactory account of my practice. It is not really history in a straightforward sense: historians of philosophy are given a freer hand to interpret their materials, often with an eye to the best or most compelling philosophical arguments which can be produced from their sources. While historians of philosophy usually work in philosophy departments, what they do is not philosophy in its most contemporary forms, since they are tied in some way to historical materials – otherwise it would not be history of philosophy. One popular way of talking about history in general is via the metaphor of a ‘dialogue with the past’. It’s a promising way of thinking about the work of the historian of philosophy, who indeed produces a kind of conversation. But it is a phrase which has been used in different, even opposing ways, hinging on the ambiguous term: ‘dialogue’. My talk looks at the idea more closely, asking what kind of dialogue this might be, and whether the image of a dialogue illuminates the practice.

Tom Stern is a Professor of Philosophy working in the Philosophy Department and in the European and International Social and Political Studies programme at University College London. He also the Vice-Dean for Interdisciplinarity in the Faculty of Arts and Humanities.

Tom is the author of Philosophy and Theatre (2013) and Nietzsche’s Ethics (2020).

https://www.ucl.ac.uk/philosophy/people/permanent-academic-staff/tom-stern