ABSTRACT
This chapter outlines one particular way in which historical narratives can help to bring out the current philosophical relevance of past doctrines despite the existence of deep contextual differences. For this, it draws a distinction between the historically situated questions that a philosopher discusses and the transtemporal phenomena that her doctrine should elucidate in order to be successful. It then proposes on this basis an approach to the construction of historical narratives in philosophy that might be especially fruitful for linking past doctrines with recent concerns and illustrates it with two examples, respectively, about William of Ockham and Plato.
