ABSTRACT

Philosophy is the oldest and most venerable branch of human inquiry. Early Modern Philosophy began the movement that celebrated the individual’s exercise of reason and judgment, even when the results were in conflict with established superstition or authoritarian dogma or unquestioned tradition. Philosophy subsequently took the ‘linguistic turn’: language was seen as the source both of philosophical problems and of their solutions. The history of scientific encroachment, albeit with rapid budding off of ever more specialized sub-disciplines, has seen the old-fashioned philosophical agenda eroded in big chunks. Philosophers by intellectual inclination immerse themselves in the history of thought, for their tradition is a long and proud one. They are thereby in a position to offer enlightening perspectives on conceptual evolution and theoretical revolutions. Ancient and medieval philosophers, and to a certain extent philosophers of the Renaissance, were able to be conversant with the full range of sciences of their day, because the knowledge gained thus far was quite limited.