And the Hi, I'm Peter Adamson and you're listening to the History of Philosophy podcast, brought to you with the support of the LMU in Munich, online at

www history of philosophy. net. Today's episode

Single-minded, Averuise on the intellect.

When I was finishing my studies in philosophy and preparing to apply for a job, I got some advice about what to do in the interviews I was hoping to get.

Given my area of interest, I should expect to be asked why it is worth studying the history of philosophy at all,

instead of just ignoring all of these antiquated ideas and getting on with our own theories.

The right answer, I was told, is that we can mine the history of philosophy to discover arguments and positions that would speak to today's concerns.

A good example might be the way that Aristotle's ethics have given inspiration to many philosophers working in ethics in the last few decades.

So I prepared myself to say, preferably with a straight face, that contemporary philosophers of the 1990s could learn a thing or

to from my PhD dissertation, not the easiest argument to make given that my topic was the Arabic

translation of platinus.

I stood in front of the mirror practicing lines like,

You may think that mental state supervene on states of the brain,

but there is a surprisingly good case to be made that we have an

undescended soul which never loses its connection to universal intellect.

But I never really believed that this is the only, even the best rationale for studying the history of philosophy.

Certainly historical texts have contributed to contemporary debates as with Aristotle's ethics.

Others seem almost to transcend the time. debates, as with Aristotle's ethics.

Others seem almost to transcend the time they were written.

No one can read Epictetus, for instance, without considering how his teachings might apply

to their own lives. But to me much of the fascination of the historical figures

is how far they are from our ways of thinking, rather than how up to date we can make them seem.

...