ABSTRACT
This part introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters. The part presents different views about how one should investigate the history of philosophy. It discusses Jonathan Bennett's approach to studying the history of philosophy, as exemplified by his book about Spinoza's Ethics. Though he acknowledges there are some benefits to knowing about the context in which Spinoza wrote, Bennett thinks these are relatively small, and most of what is to be gained from knowledge of context can be gained from relatively little knowledge of it. The part also presents an alternative view of how to approach the history of philosophy, arguing for "an historical reconstruction" that tries to understand, for example Spinoza's, texts "in terms that he or a well–informed contemporary of his may have understood."
