History Of Philosophy Research Articles

Of Racist Philosophers and Ravens

How can historians of philosophy justify spending the preponderance of their professional lives writing about historical philosophers who held racist views? I use the controversy over University of Edinburgh’s David Hume Tower as a jumping-off place for discussion of this issue. I argue that worthwhile philosophical ideas in historical philosophers can be conceptually isolated from their racist views.

Reconstructing Multicultural Islamic Education in Indonesia (Binoculars of Azyumardi Azra's Thought)

Multicultural education is a blessing in disguise for Indonesian pluralism because it promotes diversity and harmony in embroidery. The realization of human and democratic values in it leads to continuity in spreading social piety, universal wisdom, and civilized life. The purpose of this research is to see Aziumardi Azra's thoughts about multicultural education so that the clouds and cloudy skies of education can be opened. At the same time, this paper is dedicated to the extended family of Azyumardi Azra as a teacher of an intellectual multicultural nation. This research is a qualitative research, library research using a philosophical histories approach. The results of the study show that: 1) Azyumardi Azra views multicultural education as an awareness of the recognition and acceptance of diversity as a sunnatullah which should be a pillar of unity. He is so firm in his optimistic foundation to fight for equality, social justice, democracy, tolerance, inclusivity, equality, pluralism, and rule of law for Indonesian people; 2) The application of multicultural education to the history of the Indonesian nation needs to be raised again which was broken by monoculturalism; 3) Multicultural education is the main tool as a media meeting point for a multicultural world nation to prevent social chaos and escapism. 4) Indonesia with all its diversity is a good country because many of its meeting points are based on four foundations, namely Pancasila, NKRI, Unity in Diversity, and the 1945 Constitution. This research is optimistic to simplify the interaction or influence of multicultural values, Indonesian values, and Islamic values on forms of acceptance in Indonesian education

Correction to: Computer verification for historians of philosophy

Correction to: Computer verification for historians of philosophy

The Poetics of the Unconscious in The Idiot and Hegel’s Subject of Philosophical History

Abstract The present paper reads The Idiot in the context of Hegel’s philosophy of history and subjectivity and finds that Dostoevsky’s avowed interest in Hegel led to a substantial absorption of Hegel’s thought in his own aesthetics. Dostoevsky’s educated readers of the 1860s saw the novel as a moral history of the age, represented through an eccentric « new subject » (or the « new people »), embodied in marionette-like characters. The present paper explores this view further and finds that these marionette-like characters function as agents of the unconscious (and pre-empt the aesthetics of the theatre of the Absurd), which is the source of all subjectivity. Expressivity is the defining feature of subjectivity and is represented by means of pathological states – lying and self-destructive tendencies of the characters who display a pathological demeanour. Caprice (will power) is the prime mover of this subjectivity, which, in the context of Hegel’s philosophy of history, is the driver of the historical process and a direct expression of « Geist » or spirit of the people. This spirit comes to expression in different types of Russian national discourses, embodied in the myriad of embedded stories narrated by the characters on stage and off stage, and in stories within stories of episodic characters. These embedded episodic narratives, consisting of verbal pictures (or ekphrases), tell the story of Russia’s historical development from Peter Great’s time to Dostoevsky’s present of the 1860s. This is the story of the demise of the old « estate culture » of traditional Russia, with a « new Russia » emerging into history, which is grounded in an indeterminate subject of history, whose « pochva » (« soil ») is the groundless ground of language and an ethics of individual freedom. Both of these elements of subjectivity, which define the « new people », are negativities shaping a new dialectics, which is both form and content of the new self-conscious “world-historical individual” – Hegelian Man - through which spirit (Geist) manifests itself in the “present moment” of Dostoevsky’s Russia.

Uncommon Sense: Jeremy Bentham, Queer Aesthetics, and the Politics of Taste

It would be an almost comical understatement to say that, throughout my graduate study in philosophy and subsequent years of teaching and writing, I found myself engaging with the works of Jeremy Bentham somewhat infrequently. Beyond flavorful anecdotes about mummified heads and jabs about stilted nonsense in my undergraduate Intro to Ethics courses—as we segued into extended discussion of John Stuart Mill, of course—Bentham’s direct and recognized role in my philosophical activities has been pretty much nonexistent. With all that said: as a sexual- and gender- nonconforming aesthetician and LGBTQIA+ educator and wellness professional living in what is now a post-Roe United States, I found Carrie D. Shanafelt’s Uncommon Sense: Jeremy Bentham, Queer Aesthetics, and the Politics of Taste (2021) to be rich, captivating, and at times, even genuinely comforting. Shanafelt’s short book is equal parts history of philosophy, philosophical history, biography, and queer manifesto, written in an accessible manner that successfully balances scholarship with readability. I could easily see Uncommon Sense engendering rich discussion in graduate seminars as well as undergraduate courses of various sorts—though I can just as easily see portions of the book’s content generating various rumbles of controversy, at least at some of the institutions I’ve taught at before. (See, for example, Chapter Four, titled ‘Bentham’s Queer Christ.’) Any anticipatory worries of short-sighted reactionary takes aside, the book would absolutely serve well as the central focus on an entire course, supplemented by a range of literature and scholarly material from philosophical aesthetics, queer studies, political theory, and more. Honestly, I would love to teach that class.

Reply to My Critics

Reply to My Critics Margaret Watkins (bio) Science is related to wisdom as virtuousness is related to holiness; it is cold and dry, it has not love and knows nothing of a deep feeling of inadequacy and longing. It is as useful to itself as it is harmful to its servants, insofar as it transfers its own character to them and thereby ossifies their humanity. As long as what is meant by culture is essentially the promotion of science, culture will pass the great suffering human being by with pitiless coldness, because science sees everywhere only problems of knowledge and because within the world of the sciences suffering is really something improper and incomprehensible, thus at best only one more problem.1 When Nietzsche writes these words in “Schopenhauer as Educator” in 1874, nearly a century after Hume’s death, he is not using “science” (Wissenschaft) to refer only to what we now know as the natural sciences. Indeed, as another essay in the Untimely Meditations makes clear, history is as much, if not more, in Nietzsche’s sights as biology or physics. He is naming a peculiar irony here: in the quest for a certain kind of progress—the progress of knowledge—we can end up killing any hope of progress for life. Certain methods of historical study are forms of enquiry whose spiritless effect is to “let the dead bury the living.”2 Our relentless quest to catalog and preserve the old robs us of the higher ways we might learn from it, or overcome it. We “historians of philosophy” can do this by reading past philosophers as dead artifacts, focusing intently on how they were responding to their particular contexts and pursuing their own projects. As indispensable as such study is, it can kill the texts’ potential to continue to inspire and inform philosophical thought of our own. [End Page 163] In writing The Philosophical Progress of Hume’s “Essays,” my hope was to counteract this tendency in myself and in readers of Hume—to show that these works often neglected by contemporary philosophers are still capable of inspiring life-giving, generative philosophical thought. (I do not say they are of more than “mere” historical interest; abusing the study of history with such a pernicious adverb runs counter to every fiber of my being.) Such thought need not be optimistic, encouraging, or even morally admirable at every step. It need simply inspire our own thought, activate that love of truth that Hume says can never “be carried to too high a degree,” or (preferably and) show us how that truth matters for human life (EHU 5.1).3 My attempts to achieve this aim have two primary modes: showing that the Essays can inspire vital philosophical reflection and arguing that they are themselves philosophical or works of philosophy. To put my cards on the table: the enemies within (and without) that run counter to this effort are the tendency to put a piece of philosophical writing under a microscope (whose lens might be analytic or historical) without ever asking why it matters, and the tendency to dismiss the writing as philosophical because it does not fit neatly into one of the current categories of our discipline or our understanding of “the” early modern philosophical project. I am therefore pleased that both my generous interlocutors, Jacqueline Taylor and Andre Willis, recognize my attempt to extend as well as explain Hume’s insights. There is far too much insight in their own contributions for me to do justice to. I will therefore limit my discussion to three main topics: the notion of Humean public spirit I attempt to elucidate in the book, the related problems of analytic distance, and the pressing question of the difference between Hume’s projects in other philosophical works—especially the two Enquiries—and his projects in the Essays. Although there is no essay called “Of Public Spirit,” it is still a significant concept for the Essays. The initial advertisement to the 1741 volume of Essays, Moral and Political included this observation: “Public Spirit, methinks, shou’d engage us to love the Public, and to bear an equal Affection to all our Country-Men; not...

J. G. Fichte's Foundations of the Entire Wissenschaftslehre and Related Writings, 1794–95 by J. G. Fichte

Reviewed by: J. G. Fichte's Foundations of the Entire Wissenschaftslehre and Related Writings, 1794–95 by J. G. Fichte Isabelle Thomas-Fogiel J. G. Fichte. J. G. Fichte's Foundations of the Entire Wissenschaftslehre and Related Writings, 1794–95. Edited and translated by Daniel Breazeale. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2021. Pp. 608. Hardback, $145.00. This edition of texts written or taught by Fichte between February 1794 and the winter of 1794–95 is a major editorial event and is destined to become the indispensable working tool for all English-speaking students and researchers interested in Fichte. Daniel Breazeale, one of the greatest Fichte specialists, offers here four essential texts. First, the heart of this edition and of Fichte's philosophy, is Foundation of the Entire Wissenschaftslehre (literally "Doctrine of Science") of 1794–95. This central text has already been translated into English by Peter Heath and John Lachs under the title Science of Knowledge (New York: Appleton Century Crofts, 1970), but as Breazeale explains in his preface, he corrected the errors in translation and above all wished to propose a version that was "as broadly accessible as possible" (xi). This is a great challenge, given that this version of the Wissenschaftslehre (henceforth WL) is considered one of the most abstract and difficult texts in philosophy. Let us recall that the term 'WL' qualifies Fichte's entire undertaking and not just one of his works; Fichte thus professed more than fifteen versions of the WL. With this fundamental text, we are also offered a revised translation of two essays (which Breazeale had already edited in 1988): Concerning the Concept of the WL, or of So-Called 'Philosophy' (April–May 1794) and Outline of What is Distinctive of the WL with Regard to the Theoretical Power (winter 1794–95). Finally, Breazeale translates for the first time into English The Zurich WL, the lectures Fichte gave before a small committee from February 24 to April 26 of 1794. With this book, English-speaking readers thus have at their disposal, [End Page 334] in a single volume, some of the most fundamental writings of Fichte's first philosophy. The precision and clarity of this translation will, if not "force the reader to understand," to use a well-known title of Fichte, at least help the reader to appreciate one of the culminating points of idealism. But there is much more to this edition than a precise, fluent, and illuminating translation. It includes, first, an introduction of about one hundred pages that details Fichte's bibliographical, historical, and philosophical journey; then, endnotes that clarify certain moments of the text by placing them in their context, identifying the opponents targeted by Fichte, and restoring the debates of the time; lastly, a German-English and English-German glossary and an index. It is a considerable work, the fruit of a lifetime of research, which will introduce many beginners to Fichte's philosophy and at the same time renew many specialist debates. And it is undoubtedly a strength of this edition that it can be read at several levels, by the beginner as well as by the most experienced researcher. As this review cannot deal with all the rich analyses in Breazeale's introduction, I will give just a few examples. Breazeale first endeavors to reconstruct the genesis of Fichte's questioning. Indeed, the work of the historian of philosophy—as R. G. Collingwood conceived of it—consists first of all in restoring as closely as possible the question to which the text is intended to provide an answer. So, what question or problem was the source of his philosophy that he felt the need to rename WL? Fichte's initial problem was that of the foundation of transcendental idealism. The criticisms of skeptics like Gottlob E. Schulze (also known as "Aenesidemus") or Salomon Maimon had revealed the inadequacy of the foundations laid down by both Kant and Reinhold. As Fichte says and Breazeale reminds us, "The system has to be rebuilt" (4). This rebuilding is the common object of these four translated texts. In this respect, the Zurich lectures (of which only a small part remains) are the witness of this foundation work. Reading these...

Considerations on the mobilization of the Constitutional Guardian concept in the thinking of Afonso Arinos de Melo Franco (1960-1967)

Based on the method of analysis of the morphology of political ideologies by Michael Freeden and the conceptual or philosophical history of politics by Pierre Rosanvallon, as well as the theoretical framework related to Brazilian political-constitutional thought, especially liberalism, the article seeks to outline some considerations about the use of the concept of guardian of the Constitution, also defined as moderating power or fourth power, in the thinking of Afonso Arinos de Melo Franco in the unfolding of the Brazilian political crisis that culminated in the military coup of 1964. The work specifically intends to analyze the Melo Franco’s writings and speeches in the temporal arc that covers the period in which he was a senator of the Republic (1960-1967), with the objective of understanding not only the handling of the concept, but his conception regarding three elements of the country, all related to conceptual mobilization: 1) the role of the Federal Supreme Court, in the present and past, to arbitrate political conflicts; 2) the legitimacy of the military to intervene in times of crisis; and 3) the solution of the parliamentary system, defended by him since the 1950s. The article aims, therefore, to explore these three aspects in a contextual and tensioned way to understand the use of the concept.

한국현대철학사 방법론의 확장: 이규성의 ‘한국현대철학사론’과 그 논쟁들의 재검토를 중심으로

한국현대철학사 방법론의 확장: 이규성의 ‘한국현대철학사론’과 그 논쟁들의 재검토를 중심으로

Conceptions of analysis in the analytic philosophical tradition

Analysis has been at the heart of philosophical method, though it has been understood and practiced in many different ways. This paper traces the historical conceptions of analysis in the analytic philosophical history, identified as: the Regressive Analysis, the Decompositional Analysis, and the Interpretative analysis. The key characteristic features and methodological approaches of each of these conceptions of analysis, as well as their relative era of historical significance, are explored in the paper. It concludes with the view that notwithstanding some objections against it, philosophical analysis is largely a fruitful method of philosophical inquiry, whose role in contributing to man’s better comprehension of reality remains highly significant and desired in our contemporary age. The expository and analytic methods of research are adopted in the paper.

A Time of Novelty: Logic, Emotion, and Intellectual Life in Early Modern India, 1500–1700 CE, by Samuel Wright

Samuel Wright has written an excellent and subtly argued book about the intellectual culture of nyāya authors in early modern India. The early modern period, roughly the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, has been the subject of several studies of Indian intellectual history in the last two decades. Nyāya, the Sanskrit discipline of logic and epistemology, has usually been studied by philosophers and historians of philosophy, who aim to track the new developments within that tradition at this time. This book mostly discusses scholars who lived in Bengal, not only because they produced the disproportionate majority of nyāya works in the subcontinent at the time, but because they self-consciously articulated a distinct sense of novelty in their writing. Wright skilfully turns our attention from the content of that newness to its form and social context. It is not only ‘intellectual novelty’ but ‘affective novelty’ that characterises the new nyāya. If nyāya intellectuals saw themselves as belonging to a philosophical community constructed around ‘argument, rationality, and logic’, they also organised themselves around ‘certain feelings and evocations’ that should be understood as aesthetic responses to nyāya philosophy itself (pp. 15–16). ‘The new’ here is not just a matter of intellection—the new style and content of argumentation—but of emotion, of the very attitudes, dispositions and comportments with which one situates oneself in a philosophical community. ‘What emerges in this process’, Wright argues, ‘is a novel taste for consuming and producing “the new” as a constituent part of nyāya intellectual practice and in constituting the relationship between reading community and text’ (p. 192). This could be understood, to use a word that Wright does not, as a matter of scholarly habitus, the structuring structure that organises practices. Wright prefers theories of emotion, and for good reason: they can be found in the annals of Sanskrit literary theory, which lend themselves to theorising the inner life of a scholar, both ‘as expressed in that scholar’s writing’ as well as ‘projected out to other nyāya intellectuals’ (p. 17). Wright’s focus on the genre of the vāda, pamphlet-size publications of essays on individual topics, opens up a fresh perspective on the life of Sanskrit intellectual culture.

Cyril of Alexandria's Renunciation of Religious Violence

AbstractScholarly accounts of the violent events that occurred early in Cyril of Alexandria's episcopal tenure rely most of all upon Socrates's Ecclesiastical History, Damascius's Philosophical History, and John of Nikiu's Chronicle. In contrast, Cyril's own corpus is almost never consulted or engaged by scholars working on these topics, which has resulted in the complete neglect of certain passages that are directly relevant to these well-known events. Surprisingly, on at least three occasions Cyril explicitly rejects religiously motivated violence, while, in contrast, in two other passages he theorizes about it in positive terms as a means of protecting the integrity of communal boundaries. The analysis of these passages reveals that, in certain works, Cyril employed a violent rhetoric that plausibly contributed to creating the environment that resulted in Hypatia's murder. In contrast, however, he seemingly shifted his rhetoric at a certain point in his career, going out of his way to disavow precisely the kind of actions with which he is usually associated, perhaps doing so as a response to Hypatia's horrific death. With these complementary insights, this study contributes to the growing scholarly interest in how violent rhetoric can lead to actual violence. Moreover, Cyril's disavowal of religious violence complicates the simplistic image of him that holds sway as the dominant interpretation of his legacy among scholars of late antiquity.

Appropriateness of Combining Feminist and Anticolonial Approaches to Historiography of Philosophy

Feminist research on historiography of philosophy has been actively conducted in the anglophone academic space and primarily regarding Western philosophy for several decades. These inquiries led to fundamental rethinking of the canon of history of philosophy, the development of feminist methodological reflections by historians of philosophy, and discoveries (recoveries) of names of women philosophers of the past. Meanwhile, anticolonial research (including, but not limited to decolonial and postcolonial theory), aimed at combatting the problematic assumption that philosophy is a Western phenomenon, is being conducted. Meanwhile in Ukraine, the canon of history of philosophy remains almost exclusively male, and the anticolonial perspective is not applied to history of philosophy, even though for a major part of its history Ukraine was not independent and was under control of empires. To overcome the androcentric bias in historiography of Ukrainian philosophy, I believe we need to combine the feminist perspective with the anticolonial perspective since we are talking about women who are also representatives of a colonial nation, and this double status of being women and being colonial affected their experience. However, feminist and anticolonial approaches remain largely methodologically isolated, which is what prompts this article and the need to research the levels of their developments and the prospects of combining them for historiography of philosophy. This article fulfils this goal by reviewing both feminist and anticolonial approaches to historiography of philosophy separately, and then looking at cases of their successful combinations outside historiography of philosophy, reviewing challenges and similarities, and outlining methodological reasons for combining them when it comes to historiography of philosophy.

ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH AND SAFETY ISSUES ASSOCIATED WITH INDUSTRIAL ACTIVITY IN INDUSTRIAL ESTATE LAHORE

The relationship between achieving an ecological future, economic growth, andhuman well-being has a long and varied philosophical history. Environmental health and safety(EHS) refers to the recognition, accurate assessment, and prevention of various health risks at workas well as the preservation of employees' productivity. On the other hand, ergonomics combines allof these issues to enhance the competency and well-being of workers. For this particular studyproject, an industrial estate was chosen, and it was further separated into three subzones formonitoring and assessment purposes. Instead of focusing on specific concerns, Industrial Estatewas created to address the difficulties associated with industrialization as a whole. The utilizationof two major data gathering techniques was employed. A specific checklist for EHS proceduresand a review of the site area from an EHS perspective. To address the general situation of theindustrial region, the appropriate measures of the various operations were also taken intoconsideration. Reviewing complaints and accident reports, conducting interviews, and othertechniques are examples of further data collecting approaches. The majority of the results were inconformity with national norms of PEQs and international standards of the World HealthOrganization (WHO), according to a comparison of monitoring reports for ambient air quality andwater quality. The PEQS-defined limit for PM10 was being exceeded. The graphs show how theair and water quality are currently in each location of the industrial site. The industrial estate's keyproblem zones have also been highlighted by the risk assessment matrix. However, a number ofconsiderations suggested that improving the way EHS procedures were implemented wasnecessary for EHS compliance with corporate SOPs.

Spinoza and the Poetic Imagination

ABSTRACT This paper traces Spinoza’s engagement with early-modern poetics. Historians of philosophy regularly locate Spinoza within the philosophical traditions of his time. I argue that, by placing him in a parallel poetic culture, we can extend our appreciation of the expectations and debates to which he is responding, and the ways he uses poetry in his philosophical work. I make three claims: that Spinoza’s conception of imagination is fundamentally poetic; that he offers a genealogical resolution to a debate about the relative value of poetic inspiration and poetic art; and that he provides a carefully balanced analysis of the ways in which poetry can support philosophical understanding.

Mapping the notions of the self and the world in the works of Henri Bergson and Nishida Kitarō

Few questions have been discussed more frequently throughout the history of philosophy and across cultures as what it means to realize the self and the world. From the long history of philosophers in both Western and Eastern traditions, there are two figures who notably stand out for their intuitive philosophies of consciousness to grasp the ultimate meaning of the self and the world — Henri Bergson and Nishida Kitarō. Both Bergson and Nishida used the intuitive method which resolutely oriented their philosophies towards the understanding of a unified whole. In this article, I will explore the similarities and points of difference in Bergson and Nishida’s philosophical projects in their attempts to explain the self’s connection with the world. Furthermore, I aim to establish a global history of Bergsonism which shares affinities with the Eastern traditions of thought and religious experience. The notions of duration and absolute nothingness, which Bergson and Nishida both used to express diverse perspectives on the nature of the self and the world, are presented to show how similar their stances are to one another even if the two conceptions have significant differences.

Культурфилософский горизонт трудов П.П. Гайденко

Piama Pavlovna Gaidenko’s research program is recognized as one of the most important foundations of historical and philosophical thought in Russia. None of the modern Russian philosophers or historians of philosophy can say that Gaidenko’s works did not have any influence on them. For beginners in philoso­phy Gaidenko’s articles and books serve as a key and a reliable source of ap­proaching philosophical problems. For those who, with the help of Gaidenko, have already acquired the first guidelines in philosophy, her style of writing – clear, logical and concise – becomes a model of academic ductus. For the rest of the researchers the texts of P.P. Gaidenko create space for a conversation with a competent interlocutor. In this article I draw attention to the features of the his­torical and philosophical approach of P.P. Gaidenko, among which the most im­portant are: 1) the importance of cultural context, which, according to Gaidenko, is the basis of any spiritual action of a person; 2) Gaidenko’s characteristic inter­est in ontological problems and those philosophers for whom these questions were of prime importance; 3) the serious influence of Heidegger’s “history of Being” on the formation of Gaidenko’s concept of the types of rationality that successively replace each other. The clarification of these features will make it possible to understand why Gaidenko sees a way out of the scientific and ideo­logical crisis of modernity in turning to the ancient type of thinking, focused on the contemplation of physis.

Этикотеология Канта и его понятие высшего блага

The article concerns key aspects of Kant's views on theology, namely the possibility of theology as a science, the degree of certainty in knowledge achievable for it, the features of its subject, method and structure. The article shows that this problematic was of interest to Kant even in the pre-critical period, later, already in the critical period, this problematic was systematically developed. The author of the article examines the similarities and differences in the approach to theology (and, above all, to the proofs of the existence of God) between the writings of the critical and pre-critical periods. Ethicotheology is at the center of consideration. It is shown that it is ethicotheology that in the critical period is called upon to play the role of the foundation of all theological constructions. It is established that ethicotheology has two main tasks – to verify the existence of God and to deduce his inalienable attributes. Both of these tasks could be realized solely through the practical application of reason. The only one method used by ethicotheology is the method of postulation. The basis for postulating the existence of God and his moral attributes is the concept of the highest good, for the assumption of the realizability of which it becomes necessary to assume the existence of such a moral essence as God. At the same time, it is shown that for all its dominant significance, it is not considered even in the critical period (contrary to the idea of many historians of philosophy) the only way of knowing God.

“People in Dark Times”: Damaskius on Political Persecution and the Philosophical Way of Life

The Neoplatonic philosophers developed a complicated and quite ingenious concept of the grades of virtue, starting with such common human virtues, as the natural, ethical and political, and finishing which those attainable only by the real seekers of the highest truth, such as the purificatory, contemplative, paradigmatic, and hieratic. In the paper I trace the evolution of the Neoplatonic grades of virtue by means of the select passages from Damascius’ “Philosophical History,” which deal specifically with the character of Damascius’ revered teacher. The life of Isidore is presented by his student as an ascent along the path of Neoplatonic perfection, moreover, by chance or not, but in the surviving fragments of this work, which tells about many remarkable philosophers and theurgists, it is Isidore who ultimately attains the last seventh degree of virtue. Possessing outstanding personal qualities and even the gift of the seer, he was a teacher of the Socratic type, most eager to help students achieve the purificatory virtues that alone determine the further path of philosophical perfection. The position of Damascius and his attitude to the philosophical way of life is further illustrated by a series of lively portraits of Athenian and Alexandrian philosophers of his time.

Пиама Павловна Гайденко как историк науки

During her early career Piama Gaidenko was a subtle and erudite interpreter of 19th century German philosophy, primarily of Fichte. Her turn to philosophy and the history of science occurred rather by chance, when in 1969 she became a staff member of the Institute of the History of Science and Technology. Still became one of the leading historians of scientific thought, displaying high stan­dards of skill and professionalism to succeeding generations. P.P. Gaidenko is es­pecially remembered for her works on philosophical and scientific programs of Antiquity and Modernity. Since the 1990s she has also been actively address­ing the topic of religious – primarily Christian – premises for the development of scientific thought. Her work is an example of a philosophical (or conceptual) history of science that looks not at the social and material conditions for the de­velopment of scientific practice, but at the general ideas about matter, motion, and the methods of their knowledge incorporated into scientific theories. Often, within this approach, the researcher uses historical material to illustrate general theses about the course of scientific progress. We will consider the application of this approach on the example of P.P. Gaidenko’s works on the formation of the modern science.