The history of philosophy as reconstruction

I start from several observations on how the Historiography of Philosophy has been seen since the 1980s when Richard Rorty provoked several important philosophers to take position. I note that one significant related problem is that of the addressability of philosophy for it is directly consistent with the History of Philosophy as a discourse. I discuss the problem of the audience of philosophy as part of the historiographical investigation in philosophy, considering the audience as intrinsic to the philosopher's project. Then I rely on theoretical backgrounds such as Passmore and Gracia to introduce the specific of narrating philosophy as performative and interpretative act, therefore the History of Philosophy as reconstruction. My conclusion based on such is that the History of Philosophy is an actualization of as many possible counter-parts philosophical texts have in audiences' minds. (C) 2013 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.