The Ordering of Time: Meditations on the History of Philosophy

Explores how we can think with – as opposed to thinking about – the history of philosophyOutlines a new historico-philosophical methodology termed reflective historical engagementEmploys this methodology in forging dramatic and moving reinterpretations of the recent history of philosophyOffers original analyses of the works of Hegel, Whitehead, Russell, Moore, Wittgenstein, Heidegger and other foundational figures, alongside the many forgotten or marginalized historical figures who have helped shape contemporary philosophyWhat is the history of philosophy? What exactly is this the history of and how is that history to be understood in relationship to philosophy itself? Can philosophy’s history, on any of a number of diverse descriptions, ever be said in its own right to constitute a unique and genuine source of philosophical wisdom or insight?George Lucas sweeps aside the constraints of traditional methodological and cultural boundaries to reflect broadly on a variety of answers to these questions, as posed by many of the major philosophical figures of the past century. Inviting a re-consideration of the work of scholars as diverse as Alasdair MacIntyre, Leo Strauss, Jacques Derrida, Michel Foucault, Richard Rorty, Hans-Georg Gadamer, Bertrand Russell, Arthur Danto, Martha Nussbaum, Paul Ricoeur, Charles Taylor, Keith Lehrer and Jerome Schneewind, Lucas ranges widely over the history of philosophy itself in search of original, probing answers to these profound and perennial issues.