On Saying No to History of Philosophy

Abstract This paper grew out of a piece of gossip. Years ago, I heard about a sign pinned to an office door in Princeton, New Jersey. The office door was Gilbert Harman’s, and I was told the sign read, ‘Just say no to the history of philosophy’. ‘Just say no to the history of philosophy’—a clear echo of Nancy Reagan’s ‘Just say no to drugs’. When I was told this story, I believed it. I took it that Harman’s sign expressed one prominent analytic philosopher’s deep antagonism to the history of philosophy, and I wondered where that antagonism came from. Many analytic philosophers I knew were uninterested in or bored by the history of philosophy, but not usually hostile, and I wondered why Harman seemed to be more vehement. I doubted that Harman thought the history of philosophy so addictive that he had to warn people against it in the manner of Nancy Reagan, but apparently he did. I e-mailed Harman, saying that I gathered he was critical of the history of philosophy, and asking whether it was true that he had once put that notice on his door.