Meaning, the History of Philosophy, and Analytical Philosophy: A Parmenidean Ascent

This chapter seeks to shed light on the relation between philosophy and the study of the history of philosophy by resisting certain misconceptions of this relation both on the part of relatively anti-historical analytical philosophers and on the part of certain apparently pro-historical historians of philosophy. The vehicle of this resistance is a Bradleyan argument that isolates the source of these failures and advances a radical holism of meaning. Once this radical holism of meaning is in place, we will be in a position to make a Parmenidean Ascent with regard to meaning and to take up a wholly new perspective on the relation between philosophy and its history.