Do conflito: ou do conceito de filosofia

Abstract

What is Philosophy? Can Philosophy have its essence circumscribed to a concept? To demonstrate the difficulty of such a task, let us borrow the help of a philosopher's concept of Philosophy. André Comte Sponville (2003, p. 250), in his inquiries about the subject, chose to deprecate the definition of Philosophy in the following terms: "theoretical (but not scientific) practice (...) [being that] philosophy is not a science, nor even a knowledge." This statement is interesting for a multitude of reasons. Among them, the fact that it has coherent fragments that are not entirely true, because they are juxtaposed in an erroneous manner. However, the present monographic work to departs itself from this concept of Philosophy and seeks to compose another that meets its essence. It endeavors to offers an objective concept of Philosophy as a science. Dividing it into two meanings: one in the broad sense and the other in the more restricted sense. Both complementary. Both equally capable of guiding those who pursue this science. In the broad sense, Philosophy has a double function: it acts as an interdisciplinary agent of dialog among the sciences, playing the role of inter-science. And as a second function, it acts as an external agent performing the exercise of criticism and analysis of the validity of their methods and results. In this last sense it acts as meta-science. In its strict sense, Philosophy is the science that studies and delves into conflict and the consequences that follow from it.