ABSTRACT

This book presents a series of case studies and reflections on the historiographical assumptions, methods and approaches that shape the way in which philosophers construct their own past.

The chapters in the volume advance discussion of the methods of historians of philosophy, while at the same time illustrating the various ways in which philosophical canons come into existence, debunking the myth of analytical philosophy’s ahistoricism and providing a deeper understanding of the roles historiographical devices play in philosophical thought. More importantly, the contributors attempt to understand history of philosophy in connection with other historical and historiographical approaches: contributors engage classical history of science, sociology of knowledge, history of psychology and historiography, in dialogue with historiographical practices in philosophy more narrowly construed. Additionally, select chapters adopt a more diverse perspective, by making place for non-Western approaches and for efforts to construe new philosophical narratives that do justice to the voice of women across the centuries.

Historiography and the Formation of Philosophical Canons will be of interest to researchers and advanced students working in history of philosophy, meta-philosophy, philosophy of history, historiography, intellectual history and sociology of knowledge.

chapter 3|20 pages

How to Change a Philosophical Canon

chapter 4|25 pages

History as a Weapon

T.H. Green, Empiricism and the New Science of Mind

chapter 5|21 pages

The Sociology of Philosophical Canons

The Case of Georg Simmel

chapter 6|34 pages

Canonising Wittgenstein

Biography, English Male Homosocial Desire and Wittgenstein's Queerness as a Cambridge Don (1953–77) 1

chapter 7|19 pages

Interpretation and the History of Philosophy

A Pragmatic Account

chapter 12|25 pages

Let It Rip

An Analysis of Philosophical Canons and a Partial Argument for Being a Canon-shredder

chapter 13|14 pages

From Popper to Standpoint Theory

Reason and the Canon

chapter 14|19 pages

Frankenstein in Athens

Digital History of Philosophy Comes Alive!