Problematization of the Project of “Perennial Philosophy” by Means of Linguo-Conceptual Analysis

Abstract

The article analyzes two main criteria of the “perennial philosophy” project: substantive, related to the systematization of various metaphysical, ethical and religious ideas, and formal, related to the research of the history of concepts and ideas. Using linguistic and conceptual analysis as a formal criterion, I propose to interpret philosophia perennis as a “perennial philosophy” in the sense that the principles of developing concepts of different cultures are universal. Consequently, it is possible to build a search for Ur-Konzept, to which it is possible to genealogically build concepts that currently exist in various cultures, or to identify circumstances and conditions according to which such a genealogy is impossible. Thus, the project of “perennial philosophy” is not to systematize or catalog the most valuable ideas of all times and peoples, but to anthropologically study the mechanisms of development and design of concepts of various philosophical cultures.