ABSTRACT
Bachelard's choice of supervisors and his scientific background place him in the group of philosophers who were concerned with epistemology and the history of science. We have already seen the various philosophical courses taught at the Sorbonne, and the considerable weight towards history of philosophy. Moreover, I noted that for many philosophers the role of history in philosophy and in philosophy of science was prominent. Several historical subjects were considered part of philosophy. This was the case for what was regarded as history of ideas, or history of disciplines. For instance, not only history of philosophy, but also history of religions and history of social economy were institutionally part of philosophy. Naturally, there were different points of view about whether philosophy should have a historical character and what could be learned from history. We have seen in the previous chapter that Bachelard counterpoised his historical attitude to Bergson's ahistorical philosophy. Indeed, Martial Gueroult described Bergson's attitude towards history of philosophy by saying that for him the relation between philosophy and history of philosophy corresponded to the relation between truth and error. 1 In this, Bergson differed from a whole tradition of historians of philosophy.
