History of Philosophy and its Models

Could the history of philosophy be viewed in the light of models? The author of this paper believes that a deliberation over the history of philosophy can reveal the traces of certain models for philosophizing. A model for philosophizing in its general sense indicates an allegorical mould based on which and within the framework of which a philosopher formulates his philosophy and his method of philosophizing. Accordingly, one can provide a general classification for all models of history of philosophy and then explain each of them. Based on the trend of the development of history of philosophy and the activities of philosophers, the models of philosophizing can be divided into three neutral, positivist, and negativist groups in general. The mirror (reflective) and narrative (iterative) models can be placed in the neutral category. However, the positivist models themselves can be divided into two mechanical and organic groups. The encyclopedic models fall under the first group, while the mathematical-tree (Descartes) models, mathematical-geometrical (Spinoza), puzzle-like models (Hume), architectural models (Kant), dialectic architectural models (Hegel), universalist organic architectural models (Schopenhauer), phenomenological architectural models (Heidegger in Being and Time) and logical architectural models (early Wittgenstein) belong to the second group. The therapeutic model (late Wittgenstein) and post-modern philosophies can be categorized under negativist models.