The disrespect in which the history of philosophy is held in some quarters may not be unconnected with the problem of viewpoint in a theory of knowledge. The reader of such histories often feels like a tourist on a guided visit to what Hegel called "the museum of the aberrations of the human intellect."¹The spectator views a show-case of preserved opinions, when what he wants is some share in the agency, and urgency, with which these were formed as answers to pressing questions.