Historians of philosophy face a significant methodological tension: they must generalise across historical materials in order to make a tradition intelligible to others, yet simultaneously resist allowing those generalisations to ossify into closed, static systems that misrepresent the living complexity of the traditions they study.

The workshop brings together researchers, especially those in their early careers, who are grappling with this tension directly. Drawing on ideas from different philosophical traditions, speakers would examine the ways in which historians of philosophy can remain reflexively attentive to the role of contemporary scholarship in shaping the traditions they study — treating ancient thought as a living and evolving intellectual project rather than a fixed historical legacy.

The goal is to model what it looks like to do methodologically self-conscious, cross-cultural history of philosophy, thereby embodying the BSHP's commitment to the global history of philosophy.

https://bshp.org.uk/