Philosophical Genres and Literary Forms: A Mildly Polemical Introduction

Abstract

Since the dawn of Western philosophy, its representatives have drawn on innumerable descriptive styles and literary forms by referring to various conceptual issues deeply entrenched in its tradition. Among them, there have been aphorisms, dialogues, letters, autobiographies, essays, systematized treatises, and commentaries. The article offers a polemically oriented review of a relatively meager English-language scholarship on the form-creating role of particular genres of philosophy and hermeneutical postulates inscribed in them. It also discusses an article review published in „Poetics Today” to demonstrate how it exemplifi es the genres of philosophical expression.