ABSTRACT
The Western tradition of philosophy is finding itself increasingly challenged by the complexities of the current epoch. The tranquil certainties of a solid foundation for all possible knowledge are being shaken by the proliferation of vastly different, competing and mutually exclusive paradigms of knowledge. The increasingly sophisticated means by which these knowledges are disseminated in culture, and the absence of any clear idea of the ends to which they may be put, beyond their employment in view of the axioms of capital accumulation and/or state control, also confront long-cherished beliefs about the origin and value of science. Since its inception in Ancient Greece, philosophy has demonstrated a persistent desire to find a solid foundation for all kinds of knowledge, that is to say, to find the principles which make knowledges true, and by extension, necessary. However, in the recent modern or postmodern periods it has been argued that the ‘arbitrating’ role of philosophy, its ability to judge the truth claims of different domains of knowledge, is no longer tenable. Philosophy cannot offer the foundation it seeks. The ‘postmodern’ era is marked by the end of the master narratives, the end of the stories the West has told itself about the progressive march of enlightenment towards the absolute truth and to a rational mastery over the unknown forces of nature. According to the French philosopher, Jean-François Lyotard, in place of these grand stories we have an irreducible series of little stories which compete to make their truth heard as truth. The suspension of the Kantian tribunal of pure reason yields a veritable Babel for which even the metaphor of the text is probably too consistent and homogeneous.
