"No philosopher understands his predecessors until he has re-thought their thought in his own contemporary terms"

This quote by Peter Frederick Strawson recommends that in order to truly comprehend the thoughts of a theorist from the past, one must re-think their concepts in terms that relate to the present day. This suggests that one need to take the original ideas and use them to the current context, in order to gain a better understanding of the original theorist's ideas. This is important because it permits us to gain a much deeper understanding of the initial theorist's ideas, and to see how they can be used to our existing scenario. By doing this, we can gain a much better understanding of the original theorist's thoughts, and how they can be used to help us in our present lives.