This research project is an investigation into the notion of "tradition" within the Western philosophical canon. More specifically, it asks how tradition, perennially figured as philosophy's irrational and atavistcally-oriented other, becomes a philosophical concept and, in doing so, arises as one of philosophy's most intransigent problems. In the first instance, it looks at a series debates during late-eighteenth and nineteenth century German philosophy on the philosophical status of tradition as an historical, religious and anthropological category. Reconceptualised as a more authentic and concrete expression of the lived experience of historical time, "tradition" takes on during this period a new conceptual tenor, becoming a key category in hermeneutics, phenomenology and critiques of historicism. By investigating this period in philosophical history, this thesis tries to contextualise and problematise the "revival" of tradition in recent studies by Talal Asad, Chakrabarty and Walter Mignolo.
I am a PhD candidate in Modern European Philosophy at the CRMEP, Kingston University. Prior to my starting my doctorate, I studied history and law. Apart from my academic work, I work as a radio artist and am one of the founders of the community radio station Cashmere Radio.