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Abstract

“On Tradition”. Tradition plays a vital role as an ontological and explanatory concept quite apart from its frequent use as a moral and political one. Human scientists often explain features of actions, practices or works by locating them in a tradition, and even scholars who explicitly reject the concept of tradition often adopt related concepts to describe the impact of context upon human activity. It appears, then, that a concept such as tradition, structure, heritage, or paradigm has an important role to play in our understanding of the human condition. This paper analyses this ontological and explanatory concept of tradition. It asks, why do we need such a concept? What content we should give to it? What role does it play in our accounts of human affairs? The analysis takes us away from essentialist accounts of traditions as defined by fixed features toward one that sees them as composed of conceptual and historical connections. It thus seeks to allow for the contingent and fluid nature of social life.