Against the Perennial: The Changing Face of Philosophy

Abstract

As philosophers are wont to do, my philosophical career has been centered on the search for a philosophically adequate, i.e., universal and perennial, account of, in my case, scientific change. It has slowly dawned on me that efforts to find a single theory of how science changes seek the wrong grail. Not only has the search for a perennial, systematic, and universal explanation of scientific change been mistaken, but any such effort with respect to any of the major concepts we employ to discuss and analyze the sciences and our technologies is not only doomed, but also rightfully fuels the idea that philosophy is irrelevant. The idea of the perennial lays out the philosophical landscape as if it were static. However, a little reflection on the history of philosophy immediately tells us this is not so. The landscape changes, as it should, because philosophy is a living phenomenon responding to the issues and challenges of the day.