Abstract

RAGA ROSALENY, Vicente. The Owl’s Dilema: How Should Philosophy Relate to its History?. Prax. filos. [online]. 2020, n.51, pp.11-30. ISSN 0120-4688.  https://doi.org/10.25100/pfilosofica.v0i51.9739.

History seems to have a special importance in Philosophy. Only in few disciplines do we find so many references to the authors and problems of the past. However, this may be a simple matter of fact: until now we have believed that teaching the history of philosophy was formative for future philosophers, but such a belief may change. It may also be a matter of pure professional interest: some of us study the History of Philosophy and try to justify this dedication by claiming that it may be useful, to some extent, to contemporary thinkers. In this article, however, I will argue for an understanding of our history as central to Philosophy, that is, that our interest in the disciplinary past is not merely contingent, nor merely a matter of working survival.

This objective will lead me to contrast two positions, that of those who defend a rational reconstruction of the theses of the authors of the past and that of those who sustain a detailed study of their context. Having established this, I will relate these perspectives to the conception of the past that they share, and I will propose, alternatively, an interpretation that does not leave philosophy disconnected from its history but understands that this history is already philosophy.

Keywords : Art; Science; History; Contextual Reconstruction; Rational Reconstruction.

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