Abstract

Available from UMI in association with The British Library. ;The study centres around types of disagreement between philosophical systems, methods and theories. The underlying assumption being that disagreement over questions and puzzles, and the attempts at their resolution, have been one of the causes of the development of philosophical techniques of analysis and description thereby of our knowledge of the world and language. ;The discussion of disagreement in science marks the starting point in the present study so as to stave off such a limiting case. The description of scientific disciplines as closed units, where description and explanation are only feasible if one subscribed to the thesis or assumption of the discipline, presents a borderline case. Contrary to science, various philosophical systems and methods of analysis and description, and their differences reflect many varied characters of philosophical disagreements both at the descriptive and methodological levels. The systems of philosophy, whether descriptive or revisionary, and, so too, the methods of philosophical analysis, description and argumentation are advocated or propounded with certain assumptions about the nature of reality and language. The question of the choice of system, method and theory is not so much important as the question, whether the system, method or theory so advanced follows the logical criteria of consistency and non-contradiction. The various instances discussed herein, are found, in one way or another, to be deficient when so examined. The claims to consistency and non-contradiction are not made to produce holistic accounts but for consistent descriptions of the world and language. To this end, certain types of disagreements found in philosophy are discussed. Even though the differing and disagreeing systems and methods are not always open to solutions yet they have contributed to philosophy. Every system or method has, in one way or another, attempted to make our thoughts clearer and opened up new vistas of philosophical endeavour