ABSTRACT
Philosophy was understood as science, and science was itself reduced to empirically ascertainable, so-called "protocol sentences". If scientific thought has been one pillar of classical philosophy for millenaries, considerations of ethics has been the other. In the process of diffusion, the doctrine combined some of its elements with the other powerful speculative and religious systems, Greek philosophy, Judaism, and Christianity, appropriating certain parts and modifying others. A first remark is indispensable: from its beginnings, Western philosophy has been linked to reflection on religion since the latter explores ultimate questions of origin, the end of man, the meaning of thought and action, and the human quest for language and symbol. The threat arises from technology, the passionate ambition to mechanize the environment, life, language, the human self. There are philosophical and other systems which advocate it, and prompted by the essential Western mind-set, intend to recreate the universe along these lines.
