In Search of Ariadne's Thread¹

Abstract

This autobiographical sketch is intended to indicate a path by which I arrived at my current position in relation to history and the past. That position is essentially a belief that the past is there to be used by us for present purposes and in relation to our future hopes; and it implies a belief that historians cannot remain disengaged from social, political and moral issues. It is not immediately obvious how that position derives from my own education, but study of both history and philosophy provoked a continuing interest in the history of ideas, and research into early-modern scepticism and its application to historiography (together with other intellectual influences and personal ambiguities still unresolved) might be seen to have led to a concern with current debates. At least, that is one possible narrative presented here; others await exploration.

Keywords:

• Autobiography
• Historiography
• Scepticism
• Morality
• Hope

Notes

I am grateful to Alun Munslow for his encouragement, and to John Ibbett, Keith Jenkins and Sheila Southgate for comments on an earlier draft.

For a useful introduction to the range of Richard Popkin's work, see his essays in The High Road to Pyrrhonism, ed. Richard A. Watson and James E. Force (San Diego: Austin Hill Press, 1980), reviewed by me in History of European Ideas (1981).