How Does One Do History of Philosophy?

Skye Cleary reported on this year's John Dewey Lecture, given by Margaret Atherton, at the American Philosophical Society's Central Division meeting in Kansas City.

"Margaret Atherton is a Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. She is best known as a historian of philosophy, specifically for her work on Berkeley, Locke, and women philosophers of the early modern period."
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"One of the most contentious points that Atherton raised–and which was hotly debated in the audience–is that a philosophy course ought to focus on exploring three or four key texts in depth, from cover to cover. Atherton’s view is that this approach will support students in developing important skills in doing philosophy, as opposed to survey-style courses which tend to emphasize knowledge of content by drawing upon excerpts from a wide variety of philosophers, and which run the risk of taking the philosopher and philosophies out of context."

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