Hugur - 01.01.2008, Page 38

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Páll Skúlason
Abstract
To Understand a Philosopher
It is argued in this paper that philosophy is a personal endeavor to discover what
makes the world understandable for myself as well as everybody else. And this
requires, at least in the Western part of the world, a participation in the particular
history that started with Socrates and Plato. In order to understand the philoso-
pher, one has to understand his way of entering the history of philosophy. But an
interesting philosopher, Ferdinand Alquié, has argued that there is an incompat-
ibility between, on the one hand, understanding the philosopher and the way in
which he tries to present a truth of both universal and personal value, and, on the
other, understanding the history of philosophy with its various rational connec-
tions of ideas and thinking. Alquié presents Hegel as being responsible for intro-
ducing a historical mode of thinking that disregards the basic principle required
to understand a philosopher, i.e. the need to follow in his footsteps. While in
agreement with Alquié’s basic view of philosophy, it is argued that his interpreta-
tion of Hegel’s philosophy does not do it justice. It is argued that Hegel was not
trying to explain other philosophers by means of external factors, but rather
through their way of exposing Reason or Spirit, which philosophers of all ages
have attempted to grasp in novel and unexpected ways.