A hagyomány fogalma a huszadik századi filozófiában. Eliot, Scruton, Gadamer

In an effort to give an idea of the 20th century efforts to place the concept of tradition within philosophy, this essay reconstructs three different views on it. This is done in order to show that, although we tend to think of the century as a period of progressive advance, there was in fact a very conscious philosophical effort to consolidate and reinterpret tradition. In his literary criticism, and in particular in his essay entitled Tradition and the Individual Talent T. S. Eliot embodies a form of modernism, which does not negate the idea of a reliance on tradition. On the contrary, he tries to show that the idea of literary innovation and the genuine novelty of the genius is unimaginable without a constant reference to a canon, which is in need of reformation. The analytical philosopher, Roger Scruton connects the understanding of tradition as a guarantee of innovation as revealed by Eliot with his own thoughts of the adaptability of the tradition-based English common law, with its commonsense approach of problem-solving. Finally, the paper offers an interpretation of Gadamer’s account of prejudice, tradition, authority and application, in his own context of hermeneutics understood as a rehabilitation of tradition, as well as a very articulate choice of political and philosophical values and way of character-formation.