The article shows the relationship between the universal and the national in the history of philosophy and its historiography. Historical and philosophical writings originate from the Ambrodo Travesari translation of the work of Diogenes Laerta on the life and sayings of famous philosophers in 1432, then a number of authors tried to determine the essence of philosophy and the specifics of historical and philosophical research. In 1833, after the publishing of Hegel’s lectures on the history of philosophy, this field of knowledge became systematic. Nowadays, when the humanities are under pressure from ongoing informatization and globalization, we need to re-evaluate and reconstruct the history of philosophy. In the 20th century a number of works on the history of philosophy appeared in India, China, Japan, Africa, Latin America, and in the Arab East. The development of philosophical thought in the world is carried out through the interconnection of the national form of philosophizing and the world philosophical process, i.e., by means of correlating the universal and the local. The national character, the national picture of the world and the national language form a special philosophy, and the cultural and historical environment reveals the peculiarities of philosophical traditions. The universal language of philosophy can provide a dialogue among the people, it can promote mutual recognition and harmonization of various multidirectional forces both in society and in the inner, spiritual life of an individual.