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Philosophy Then

The Other Side of the Coins

Peter Adamson on the philosophical edge of numismatics.

Historians of philosophy are philosophers, but they are also historians. This means that, in principle, they may benefit from knowing whatever historians can know. We usually think of the historian of philosophy as working only on philosophical texts, reading Aristotle or Hume, not the Domesday Book or war chronicles; but I think there are philosophical insights to be found in even the most archeological areas of the historical record.

As a kind of test case, I suggest thinking about numismatics – the study of coins. Yes, coins! Especially old ones, such as you’ve probably walked past in museums on your way to view more obviously interesting artefacts.

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