PHILOSOPHY: MAN'S MIRROR

Philosophical "projects", no matter by what. method they are conceived and from what historical situation they are postulated, are man's mirror. This means that they reflect the prevailing historical conditions of the age: the specific conflicts of the time and the specific needs arising from these conflicts. It also means that they are postulated to cope with these conflicts and needs in methodological form, in this way ordering man's surroundings in a rational manner, thus serving as guides under specific historical circumstances. It means further that they enter into a controversial and critical relationship with one another, which represents philosophical thought as a continuing dynamics of critical argument. The critical relationship between historical philosophical projects point to the real ground from which these projects are developed: man's contingent experience of the world. It is on the grounds of his changing experience of the world that the philosophical argument continues about the basic questions of knowledge, being, justice, freedom, harmony and truth. It is in the light of the continuing philosophical argument that a philosophia perennis exists