Williams, History, and the “Impurity of Philosophy”

In addition to his contributions to the history of philosophy, Bernard Williams’s later work is concerned with more explicit reflection on the role of history in the constitution of the discipline of philosophy, the fact that, unlike the case of the natural sciences, the great figures of philosophy are part of the contemporary discussion in philosophy. In addition these reflections became increasingly concerned with what is distinctive about history as a form of knowledge, a form of knowledge which does not attract the attention of analytic philosophers. Historical knowledge is at once empirical and evidence-based but also, insofar as it concerns human affairs and institutions, obliged to make sense of and reconstruct the perspective of the practices and participants themselves. Part of the importance of historical understanding for Williams lies in its position as a model for humanistic knowledge that is non-reductionist while also being non-ideal, empirical, and “impure.”