>>If we truly sought the ultimate essence of the nature of things, the best we could refute the other with would be the simple edict, "we do not know".<<
The history of Western Philosophy says otherwise. Philosophy seeks what Reality is, insosfar as it is. The "isness"-the "ousia"- Plato calls idea and Aristotle calls energeia.
The Greeks asked, "what is that?" The question of what something is, however, has more than one meaning since Reality changes over time. Time is not an illusion. It is the horizon in which Reality unfolds.
I can ask, "what is that over there in the distance?" I receive the answer, "a tree." The answer consists in the fact that I name a thing which I do not clearly recognize.
I can, however, ask further, "what is that which I call a tree?" With the question now posited I am already approaching the Greek ti estin (what is it?). It is this form of questioning which Socrates, Plato and Aristotle developed. They ask for example, "What is the beautiful? What is knowledge? What is Nature? What is movement?"
That which "what" means is called the whatness. However, the whatness is determined differently in the various periods of philosophy. Thus, for example, the philosophy of Plato is a specific interpretation of what the what signifies, namely the idea. Aristotle gives an interpretation of the what different from that of Plato. Kant gives another interpretation of the what, Hegel still another. Schopenauer interprets the what as "will to live." Nietzsche interprets the what as "will to power." That which is asked each time by means of the clues of the ti, the quid, the "what," is newly determined each time. In every case when, in regard to philosophy, I ask, "what is that?" then I am asking an originally Greek question.
The question itself is a path, a journey. I do not take refuge in ignorance or some abstract faith. The question leads from the reality of the Greek world down to us, if not beyond us. The question, is a historical, that means, a fateful question. It is the historical question that determines our destiny. |
