LAS VICISITUDES DEL MÉTODO FILOSÓFICO

Abstract

This article tries to expose the different lines of force in the philosophical method. Some times has prevailed the pure Logic,  relegating Metaphysics. This has occurred, for instance, with Peter Abelard and Ockham. Other times has done this the mystic or theology, as with Saint Peter Damiani, against the dialecticians, like Berengar and Saint Anselm. In other occasions the method provided for Philosophy has been that of Mathematics, with rationalists like Descartes, Pascal, Spinoza and Wolff. Or that of Physics, in the empiricism of Bacon, Locke, Berkeley and Hume. This situation has occurred recently with Positivism. In the other hand, Romantics have exaggerated Hermeneutics and Idealists have used only the internal coherence, rejecting the external world. However, philosophical method vindicates the fact that it must be Logic with Metaphysics, for in this way is provided matter for the form of reason, that it needs for its reflection. This is what is desirable nowadays, and philosophical history provides us the teacher that indicates us what we must  avoid. It is the lesson we must learn. This will enable us to recover the authentic philosophy. This will be provided for us by the concept of analogy applied to philosophy, as happened in several moments of its history, mainly with Saint Thomas Aquinas, Leibniz and Kant. Such equilibrium between Logic and Metaphysics is that will save Philosophy.