Philosophy is a humanistic discipline. It studies ‘the ultimate and the general features of all existence’. In other words, how genuinely we encounter them in our everyday life “we think about the existence of the world and the destiny of man in the world.” There is no single method or single mode of doing philosophy. Philosophical activities is carried in multiple ways, thus it is inevitable that philosophers are bound to have Pluralism and Disagreement. Philosophy presents a pluralistic scenario of theories, thesis and methods. “Disagreement is the permanent facts of the philosophical solution. Philosophy grows in best way when there is disagreement. This also reveals the inner dynamics of philosophy as an ascientific theoretical discipline. Disagreement generates possibility of new philosophy with a new method and new solution.”³ So, the progress in philosophy depends on not merely rejection and confirmation of philosophical ideas, rather it is more about acceptance. And, the acceptance of a philosophical knowledge demands rational consensus. It is because philosophical worldview does not overrule one another. Rather proliferates in many ways pertaining to our everyday activities in life. For example, within analytic naturalism, there are many theories of mind, such as biological naturalism, functionalism, physicalism, emergentism, etc. However, their quest for truth lies in their engagement and description of the world. Secondly, these theories do not discover new facts, rather present new knowledge of facts. Philosophizing, thus, needs critical thinking and concept formation. Not merely with justification, but reflection. It is because in the process of articulating new concept the old concept is displaced. According to Pradhan, the concept displacement is very much part of the philosophical inquiry. Philosophical knowledge concerning progress is ought to be intelligible, and that would help building rational consensus.
³ Pradhan, R. C. “The Nature of Philosophical Knowledge” in Truth, Meaning and Understanding, (New Delhi: Indus, 1992) p. 167
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