[ckosidows]

Just curious, as I'm not a philosopher, but why _can't_ you learn philosophy without learning its history?

[xboxnolifes]

That's what the first 3 paragraphs are talking about. Philosophy is organized and contextualized by it's historical people and works.

[stewbrew]

Because you need to follow the trajectory of some philosopher in order to fully comprehend what it is about. You don't understand it by just memorizing the summary from some encyclopedia.