invitation to a philosophy talk - David Weberman,October 20,4.30 PM

The CEU Philosophy Department cordially invites you to a talk (as part of its Departmental Colloquium series) by David Weberman (CEU) on A Defense of Anachronistic History of Philosophy Tuesday, 20 October 2009, 4.30 PM, Zrinyi 14, Room 412 ABSTRACT As part of a larger project on interpretation, this paper deals with the nature of interpreting the history of philosophy. Past philosophical texts often involve questions, assumptions, motivations, strategies, vocabularies, and styles different from those of the present. The question is what we should say or do about this sometimes large chasm between the past and the present. Should we understand older texts in their terms (antiquarianism, also called historical reconstruction) or in ours (presentism, also called rational reconstruction)? Can we choose between the two and must we? I argue against Quentin Skinner’s meta-interpretive antiquarianism (my term), which says that antiquarianism is the only proper way to interpret texts. The point of this argument is to show that texts admit multiple, non-convergent interpretations. Kriszta Biber Department Coordinator Philosophy Department Tel: 36-1-327-3806 Fax: 36-1-327-3072 E-mail: biberk(a)ceu.hu