Why read old philosophy?
I&#x27;m a philosophy Philosophy PhD student. There can be a  number of different reasons to read the original text of some older work of philosophy. But two central reasons that seem to be ignored here are:<p>1. Philosophy is closer to logic&#x2F;math than science. And the reason to learn &#x27;what Aristotle said about X&#x27; is similar to the reason to learn &#x27;what Pythagoras said about triangles&#x27;. The pythagorean theorem doesn&#x27;t become outdated in the way that scientific knowledge becomes outdated. (The difference here is just between a priori and a posteriori domains of knowledge.)<p>2. Explaining philosophical reasoning is, itself, doing philosophy--it requires careful reasoning and argumentation. The central thing we do (in UC Berkeley Philosophy classes) is evaluate philosophical reasoning. And so you can&#x27;t simply rely on some interpreter&#x27;s take on the original text--you must grapple with it yourself. Sometimes interpreters <i>do</i> get things right, but sometime&#x27;s they <i>don&#x27;t</i>. And telling the difference requires doing some philosophy.