Philosophy as a Theory over Theories

We view philosophy as paradigm setting: largely, spread over leading sciences of the epoch, as well as the main developing technologies, and even socio-economic and managerial patterns. This is, obviously, a “regulatory definition,” not quite a descriptive one. We examine whether it is the science of sciences, or the science over the sciences. Thus, it is not quite a meta-science. Our point is not to view philosophy as a methodology of science, or as its maid ( ancilla). Philosophy is viewed as the pinnacle of the sciences, providing them with ontological and axiological meanings. Here is one proposed definition: Philosophy is built upon the sum of general theories of all leading sciences (broadly understood); it is a theory based on this sum. The aim of philosophy so defined is to stipulate and approximate veridical worldviews, rooted in the strongest available background, which is largely the background provided by the sciences, but not quite limited to what is scientifically provable at a given point in time—this last clause is due to temporary limitedness of any science, always existing at a given time-slice. Thus, limited dependency on any principles, not only factual statements. As we know from Albert Einstein’s relativity theories and other scientific revolutions, both factual statements and higher-level principles, are always already inductively questionable, e.g., through inference to the best explanation following pragmatic, context dependent, criteria of what counts as “the best” of explanations. We also question the intuitive requirements of physicalism that are crucial to Daniel Stoljar’s thesis that physicalism cannot be properly defined. In contrast to the broadly scientistic predilection beneath the approach in the main bulk of this article we also need and require a philosophical focus on the human existential condition, which is complementary to, and not contradictory with, the above definition of philosophy. The proposed approach may be viewed as an Enlightenment approach, aware of its strengths and limits; thus, with a post- Enlightenment zing.