Philosophy and History in the History of Modern Philosophy

Abstract

Abstract Philosophical questions are cognitively orienting. That is, how one answers them whether explicitly or implicitly—determines in fundamental ways how one thinks about a whole range of important but more specific or consequent questions. Answers to philosophical questions can provide cognitive orientation through their implications about what the answers to those more specific or consequent questions must be, through their implications about how those more specific or consequent questions should be approached, or through their implications about the significance or value of the answers to those more specific or consequent questions. Of course, it does not follow from this characterization of philosophical questions that every question is either entirely philosophical or entirely unphilosophical; nor that philosophical questions can be well addressed without knowledge of the answers to less philosophical questions; nor that there is any single method or training that is suitable for addressing all philosophical questions; nor that different cultures and eras will not find themselves confronting quite different philosophical questions or employing quite different methods.