History and Genealogy

Genealogy is an unjustifiable attempt to claim that history is the most important of all the modes of understanding and the key to resolving philosophical problems. Genealogy is a method for justifying or criticizing evaluations by a historical reconstruction of how they came to acquire their current status. This may justify them by showing that they serve an essential function required by human nature. Or it may criticize them by showing that their real function is to serve the interests of some people, which are disguised as requirements of human nature. The pluralistic approach accepts that evaluations have a history, but denies that it is a reason for them. Reasons for or against them depend on the function they serve now, not on how they came to be what they are. Genealogy may show the historical contingency of evaluations. This leads to relativism unless there are non-historical reasons for or against evaluations.