Notes on the Relationship Between Philosophy and the History of Philosophy

Abstract

These “notes on the complex relationship between philosophy and the history of philosophy” are an attempt to look at several fundamental theoretical issues that emerge as central to any new understanding of the history of Western philosophy. After briefly considering a few of the key figures for historiography as it came to exist in renaissance humanism and in modernity (Pico della Mirandola, Steuco, Hegel…), the article focuses upon two contrasting voices (Alain in the area of French culture and Foresi in the area of Italian culture) which allow us to identify original paths for further research and for attempts at a fresh expression of the complex relationship between philosophy and the history of philosophy from its inception. What is put forward here places at the centre of the question a redefinition of the relationship and looks to the opening up of new possibilities that could revitalize European culture, leading to a new form of humanism (“continuing humanity”), while renewing and rethinking the challenge of the past. A privileged place of this kind of possibility for new thinking would seem to be precisely the history of philosophy, which offers a space where ideas can be evaluated in comparison with one another and where there can be a redefinition of every possible philosophical tradition.