Ian Hacking was University Professor Emeritus at the University of Toronto. He held the Chair of Philosophy and History of Concepts at the Collège de France.

What, asks Ian Hacking in Historical Ontology, do I mean by live skepticism? His answer is that it is desirable to be ‘genuinely in doubt and terrified that one’s doubt might be warranted.’ It’s a healthy position for an enquirer into how new concepts and objects emerge in the province of philosophers and inventors, the novel uses of words and new ways of reasoning, and new interplays of power and knowledge. His essays demand attention and close reading.

• 1. Historical Ontology 2. Five Parables 3. Two Kinds of "New Historicism" for Philosophers 4. The Archaeology of Michel Foucault 5. Michel Foucault's Immature Science 6. Making Up People 7. Self-Improvement 8. How, Why, When, and Where Did Language Go Public? 9. Night Thoughts on Philology 10. Was There Ever a Radical Mistranslation? 11. Language, Truth, and Reason 12. "Style" for Historians and Philosophers 13. Leibniz and Descartes: Proof and Eternal Truths 14. Wittgenstein as Philosophical Psychologist 15. Dreams in Place Works Cited Sources Index

Ian Hacking was University Professor Emeritus at the University of Toronto. He held the Chair of Philosophy and History of Concepts at the Collège de France.

What, asks Ian Hacking in Historical Ontology, do I mean by live skepticism? His answer is that it is desirable to be ‘genuinely in doubt and terrified that one’s doubt might be warranted.’ It’s a healthy position for an enquirer into how new concepts and objects emerge in the province of philosophers and inventors, the novel uses of words and new ways of reasoning, and new interplays of power and knowledge. His essays demand attention and close reading.

• 1. Historical Ontology 2. Five Parables 3. Two Kinds of "New Historicism" for Philosophers 4. The Archaeology of Michel Foucault 5. Michel Foucault's Immature Science 6. Making Up People 7. Self-Improvement 8. How, Why, When, and Where Did Language Go Public? 9. Night Thoughts on Philology 10. Was There Ever a Radical Mistranslation? 11. Language, Truth, and Reason 12. "Style" for Historians and Philosophers 13. Leibniz and Descartes: Proof and Eternal Truths 14. Wittgenstein as Philosophical Psychologist 15. Dreams in Place Works Cited Sources Index