The History of Philosophy

Since your book, there's been a huge upsearch in publishing biographies of philosophers. What rold you see a biography, even a kind of complex biography like this one, playing in our understanding of philosophy? I think it can't be understood merely by looking at the text. You cannot understand papa's philosophy unless you understand that he is responding to a whole tradition in vienna of positivist thinking. And something similar can be said about vichtemstein. It makes no sense to think about pope's philosophy without understanding the viennese context.