Philosophia Perennis: Historical Outlines Of We... HOT!
It is false to say that all truth is relative to a given time and latitude, and that philosophy is the product of economic conditions in a ceaseless course of evolution, as historical Materialism holds. Side by side with these things, which are subject to change and belong to one particular condition of the life of mankind, there is a soul of truth circulating in every system, a mere fragment of that complete and unchangeable truth which haunts the human mind in its most disinterested investigations. Amid the oscillations of historic systems there is room for a philosophia perennis — as it were a purest atmosphere of truth, enveloping the ages, its clearness somehow felt in spite of cloud and mist.
Philosophia perennis: Historical Outlines of We...
In considering the volume's fourteen chapters, let us first note how various authors relate to the allegedly "standard" dichotomy between problem-oriented appropriationism and unapologetic antiquarianism. The first two chapters, by two volume editors (Mogens Lærke and Justin Smith), accept the dichotomy by endorsing antiquarianism and seeking to improve on Skinner's version (for instance, by endorsing work that widens context to include non-textual artefacts, such as the telescope or microscope). A third chapter (by Joanne Waugh and Roger Ariew) accepts the dichotomy by mounting an attack on problem-oriented philosophia perennis, designed to show the local, historical contingency of philosophical problems. The rest of the chapters eschew the dichotomy or problematize it. Some advocate a type of appropriationism that engages in contextual study while nonetheless using history to enrich contemporary philosophy (Michael Della Rocca, Eric Schliesser, Mary Domski). The remaining seven chapters either reject the disjunctive implications of the dichotomy (Koen Vermeir, Ursula Goldenbaum, Leo Catana) or ignore the dichotomy while offering their own insights on engaging the history of early modern philosophy (Julie Klein, Delphine Kolesnik-Antoine, Alan Nelson, Yitzhak Melamed). The fourteen chapters do not offer a shared vision of the history of philosophy, its methodology, or even its current tendencies, and that's a good thing. Moreover, they don't all accept Skinner's dictum or antiquarianism as defining the contextualism of recent decades, and that's a good thing, too. 041b061a72