Metaphysics and Common Sense: the Dialectics of Philosophical Reason

Abstract

In this paper, I discuss the method of philosophy faced with the limits of sense and rationality. I start with the conception according to which the philosopher should at best exhibit the nonsense of other philosophers, but should finally be forced to shut up, given that his own discourse necessarily exceeds the limits of rationality. Next, I propose an intrerpretative methodology for philosophy in an attempt to characterize these limits more precisely and avoid the silence which would make all philosophical discourse impossible. Finally, I try to reconcile this philosophical interpretative methodology with the internal irrationality of the philosopher by appealing to a division in his mind between common sense and a second agency which is bound to exceed it. This philosophical schizophrenia would be the only way to understand its recurring task of safely drawing the limits of our ordinary understanding of the world.