Past philosophers are judged by contemporary standards instead of being understood in relation to the historical and cultural contexts in which they lived and wrote. Philosophers are found wanting because they do not contribute to contemporary debates in subfields such as epistemology (the study of the basis for knowledge) and metaphysics (the study of the nature of reality). Additionally, ideas from contemporary philosophy may be attributed to historical philosophers in a way that does not accurately apply to them. This ignores the differences in time, culture, and context between contemporary philosophers and historical philosophers, an error known as anachronism.
Anachronism
In addition to reading philosophical texts too narrowly, the exclusive focus on arguments has been criticized for yielding a profoundly ahistorical understanding of the development of philosophy.
Source & attribution
Introduction to Philosophy — Historiography and the History of Philosophy
OpenStax contributors · OpenStax, Rice University
CC BY 4.0. Text excerpted; whitespace normalised and empty cross-references removed; learning prompts added. No illustrations reproduced.
Source edition: 2024-03-01T20:57:48Z
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