The Broken Mirror of Knowledge and the Ideal of a Coherent Worldview

Abstract

This article poses the necessity of reconstructing a global image of the world, which should take into account the contributions of science and philosophy. In the present world, the specialization of science results in an addition of specific and restricted knowledge that, even when making possible the advance of science, is contrary to philosophy understood as the knowledge which gives a vision of the joint (in Plato’s terms). However, science and philosophy are not contrary, as the history of both of them shows, but they constitute a continuous: the scientist’s curiosity doesn’t exhaust into the limits of his specific field, while the philosopher uses for his reflections the knowledge generated by science. This article affirms that science and philosophy should join for the creation of a “cosmovision” that would become a framework for the analysis and solution of individual and collective problems. The pursuit for a global vision is the main goal of every research, and only the joint work of science and philosophy will make possible to extend the rational understanding of the world and will construct a comprehensive framework of reference for human reflection and action.