What have \;We \;learned from the history of philosophy? \;First\, that philosophy (and all intellectual/cultural activity) has a history and cannot be understood apart from its history- something we did not understand until the 18th-century\; \;Second\, there are basic recurrent \;errors of philosophical practice: along with certain recurrent basic questions there are questions that we do not know honestly how to answer or whether we have asked them in the proper manner\; that we keep &lsquo\;reinventing the wheel&rsquo\; using new terminology (recurrent patterns of answers)\; that the very ambition to understand everything or what is basic in some sense requires knowledge from other fields\; there are philosophical charlatans. \; \; \; \;
\nWhat have I learned about \;philosophy: it is the ambitious comprehensive Western practice\; that it involves the ongoing explication of the inherent norms of our other practices\; that religion\, science\, ethics\, politics\, commerce\, and art are central practices\; that understanding my role as explicator does not automatically translate into being a competent explicator. \; \;
\nSpecific things I have learned: \; our present science may not be the best/definitive science\; that there is no such thing as social science\; why Plato&rsquo\;s analysis of politics is still relevant\; why Hegel is in one sense the last great philosopher\; the importance of the 19th-century\; the floundering of the 20th-century\; my hopes for the 21st-century.
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