ABSTRACT
All of philosophy's ‘radical’ new departures are eventually seen to be in large part illusory. In the way the initial and arbitrary assumption of intelligibility led to the postulation of an ‘inner world’ consisting of two parts: the intellect, knifing its way to the bone of reality, and subjectivity, irrelevant or even harmful to the pursuit of truth. The philosopher devoted to clear thought, however, is like the man who keeps his car in excellent running order without ever going anywhere in it. He may be compared to the writer whose one interest is style and who therefore has nothing to tell us. This is putting matters at best, since there is nothing to prevent clear thinking from being directed to evil ends.
