We’re not seeing now and haven’t seen for some time the production of grand philosophical systems. No philosopher, and nobody else either, keeps track of what’s going on simultaneously in say, physics, biology, psychology and the other disciplines down the line. It’s too big for one brain. The job of relating different areas to one another and of making their overall projects understandable and accessible, remains. But if it can’t be done in one grand synthesis, we must find a better way to do it.
Instead of one grand picture, what we need is a series of overlapping pictures in which we get visions of particular areas of philosophical inquiry and try to assess what has been achieved, where we stand today and where we are or should be going in the future.
The big questions have become more complicated and more intricate.
- - Scott Soames, author of Philosophical Analysis in the Twentieth Century, Volumes 1 and 2.
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