Alexander Koyré, Fifty Years After His Death. Regarding Four Recent Publications

To truly understand the work of a great scholar of the past, and a great historian of thought in particular, it is generally considered necessary to implement the following four recommendations: 1) know the life of its author in order to become immersed in the specific context, one very different to our own, in which this work was forged; 2) pay attention to the genesis and evolution of their thinking, so as to understand how this work gradually developed; 3) re-read their publications many times over, as what one finds in their work will vary according to one's own knowledge and questioning each time it is read; 4) consult secondary literature, because while reading the work itself is certainly essential, it is nonetheless insufficient.