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THE JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL INSTITUTE
OF PHILOSOPHY
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PHILOSOPHY
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THE IDENTITY OF THE HISTORY OF IEAS
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PHILOSOPHY
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THE IDENTITY OF THE HISTORY OF IDEAS
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PHILOSOPHY
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THE IDENTITY OF THE HISTORY OF IDEAS
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PHILOSOPHY
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THE IDENTITY OF THE HISTORY OF IDEMA
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PHILOSOPHY
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THE IDENTITY OF THE HISTORY OF IDEAS
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PHILOSOPHY
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THE IDENTITY OF THE HISTORY OF IDEAS
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PHILOSOPHY
Codewas necessarily'philo-
any sociologicalanalysisof the Gortyn
sophical'.27
No doubtthereare trueclaimsto be made in theseareasbysome-
what stretching the meaningof the word 'philosophical'.But the
centralpoint remainsthat epics and law codes are conceptually
set in well-defined areas of activity,whateverone can learnfrom
them about the historyof philosophy,28 and appeal explicitly or
implicitlyfor theirstandingto many criteriaaltogetherdiscrete
fromthenatureoftruth.29 The historyofphilosophy, likethehistory
ofscience,mustneedsbe Whigas to subject-matter, just as, likeall
history,it mustbe Tory as to truth.This does not mean thatone
shouldnecessarily studyKant ratherthan ChristianWolff;onlythat
one should selectphilosophically interestingphilosophy,afterone
has identified what philosophythereis to study.30 The criteriafor
selectingthis,as indeedin a broadersensethecriteriaofwhatin the
indentifiedpast is philosophyat all, are providedby philosophy
today.But thecriteriaprovidedby philosophytodayneed neverbe
merelythose of philosophyyesterday.The criterionof future
philosophicalinterest is theachievement oftheinvestigator, notthe
traditionofthe Schools.What we can learnfromthepast is always
whatwe can succeedin learning;and theeducativepastcan change
-as ifsomedisusedMendiplead-working wereone day to disclose
a new and precioussortofuranium.
But this hardlyprovidesany very helpfuldirection.To bring
togetherthe threadsof Utopian persuasion,we mustreturnto the
contextsof the utteranceswhich men produce. If a statementis
consideredin a fullyopen context,itsmeaningmaybe anylexically
possiblesetofcolligations oftheutteredpropositions. A man might
mean by it anything thata man mightmean by it. The problemof
interpretation is alwaysthe problemof closingthe context.What
closesthe contextin actualityis the intention(and, much more
broadly,the experiences)of the speaker.Locke, in talking,talks
about whathe talksabout. The problemof the historianis always
thathis experiencealso drasticallyclosesthe contextof utterance;
indeedall tooreadilyturnsa factaboutthepastintoa factaboutthe
intellectualbiographyofthehistorian.If in theseventeenth century
Lockeand Hobbesare thetwoEnglishpoliticaltheorists whomwe all
read and if,had we been writingLocke's majorwork,we should
surelyhave wished to addressourselvesmainlyto the worksof
Hobbes,it is a verysimpleellipseto supposethatLockemustsurely
have been addressing himselfto Hobbes. Indeed it is so simplethat
menwillgo to the most extraordinarilyintricatetheoreticallengths
torescuethissomewhatsubjective'appearance'.3'The solutiontothe
historian'sproblemis formally simple,to substitute the closureof
98
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THE IDENTITY OF THE HISTORY OF IDEAS
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PHILOSOPHY
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THE IDENTITY OF THE HISTORY OF IDEAS
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PHILOSOPHY
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THE IDENTITY OF THE HISTORY OF IDEAS
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PHILOSOPHY
104
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