Can anyone direct me to any sources/texts on the History of Philosophy as a field (or "branch") of philosophy? (Note: I'm not looking for history of philosophy books, that is, books which discuss past philosophy/philosophers, but rather books which discuss, for lack of a better definition, the job which historians of philosophy do.)

Thanks!

Thomist

Hello Thomist,

In case you're still looking, here are a few ideas. What you described is the historiography of philosophy, i.e. studies on how the history of philosophy is written (or how it has been written in the past, in which case we're talking about the history of the historiography of philosophy).

This is a field which interests me, but I haven't personally read any books in it yet. However, Jorge Gracia's Philosophy and Its History (SUNY Press, 1992) might perhaps be what you're looking for?

To find more alternatives, I would search books.google.com with keywords such as "historiography of philosophy" and "historiography of ideas".

Philosophy is peculiar in that philosophical scholarship quite often involves work on the history of philosophy. Re-interpretations of classical sources such as Wittgenstein, Kant or even Aristotle actually invigorates philosophy. In contrast, very few physicists have even seen Einstein's original papers. So whereas the history of philosophy is an alive branch of philosophy, the history of science is closer to "history proper" than to science itself.

I think Gadamer's Truth and Method provides many interesting viewpoints on the historiography of philosophy, on many levels. First of all because the historiography of philosophy can be seen as a hermeneutic activity, but also because Gadamer practices this very art as he develops his hermeneutic philosophy (by interpreting Kant, Schleiermacher, Heidegger etc.).

What's your interest in this field, Thomist?