James Garvey ponders whether knowing the biography of great thinkers helps us better understand their ideas:
In recounting the history of philosophy, you bump into a number of stories about philosophers. It’s said that Thales fell into a ditch while stargazing. Diogenes did some fairly revolting stuff in public. Aquinas paced back and forth between scribes, dictating the lines of separate philosophical treatises to them at the same time. Kant held carefully organized house parties, with time allocated to political discussion and the telling of amusing anecdotes. Schopenhauer pushed a woman down a flight of stairs. Suicide runs in Wittgenstein’s family … We shouldn’t wonder about the value of knowing a life in general. Instead we should value biography that describes a life and work in an integrated, interleaving narrative. ‘Catching the tone’, as [Ray Monk] puts it, getting to know a philosopher better, can help us along in particular instances. Not always, not never, but now and then, and in a certain, nuanced way.
The Dish 