Abstract

1. The idea of tradition is controversial: residual and inertial concept in the Enlightenment; factor of truth in Traditionalism; condition of comprehension in philosophical hermeneutics; constitutive factor of relations in neo-communitarianism. 2. Conditions of sense of the tradition: manifestation and development of an origin ; community; productivity. 3. “Tradition” stands for an activity: the activity of handing down. The tradition is a living tradition only if it is generative and if it implies real relations between different generations