Table Of ContentAwakening Philosophy
The Loss of Truth
Robert Elliott Allinson
Awakening Philosophy
Robert Elliott Allinson
Awakening Philosophy
The Loss of Truth
Robert Elliott Allinson
Soka University of America
Aliso Viejo, CA, USA
ISBN 978-3-031-08299-3 ISBN 978-3-031-08300-6 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-08300-6
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“And gladly wolde he lerne and gladly teche.”1
A Capella
1 Description of the Clerk in the Prologue of Geoffrey Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales,
trans. Nevill Coghill (London, England: Penguin Classics, 2003).
This work is dedicated to my beloved Mother, Gertrud Golda Rosen, aleha
hashalom, of whom I have the most poignant and fondest of memories. She
passed away at an early age, when I was a small child. She wanted to help
and teach others, and was college trained as a teacher. She was sensitive,
observant, and kept a journal, an act that inspired me to the goal of
becoming a writer and a professor. This book is an offering to her too short a
life and toward the path of fulfillment of both of her life goals.
A
cknowledgments
To my beautiful wife Irèné, whose heartfelt devotion and intellectual bril-
liance have supported my philosophical and poetic works through our life
together and whose perceptive eyes have perused this work in manuscript,
I want to express my deepest appreciation. To my extended family, par-
ticularly my Aunt Shirley Hodes, who at the wise age of 106 continues to
support and encourage my work and whose faith in me has been a lasting
source of inspiration, my gratitude is boundless. To my philosophy stu-
dents, for their keen interest in the wisdom of philosophy and philosophi-
cal thinking, I want them to know how much this means to me. To Philip
Getz, Senior Editor at Palgrave Macmillan, whose strong support of my
work is what has made it possible for me to share these ideas with the
public, I want to express my very special appreciation. To the reviewers of
this work who read it in manuscript and took the time to make valuable
suggestions, I am indebted. To my Research Assistant, Leonardo Salvatore,
I am very appreciative for his focused, indefatigable, and committed assis-
tance. To my University, Soka University of America, especially for its
President Research Assistant Program, I am most grateful.
ix
c
ontents
1 Prologue 1
Part I The Nature of Philosophical Progress 9
2 Standing on the Shoulders of Giants 11
3 Plato 19
Part II Kant, the Father of Modern Philosophy 27
4 Descartes, Plato, and Kant 29
5 Intellectual Intuition 45
6 Was Kant a Metaphysician? 53
7 Kant’s Arguments against Metaphysics and Ontology 63
8 Kant as the Bridge to Metaphysics 69
9 The Third Kind of Knowledge 83
xi
xii CoNTENTS
Part III From Epistemology to Metaphysics 91
10 A Path to Metaphysics 93
11 The Mind-Body Problem 105
Part IV From Metaphysics to Ethics 117
12 Metaphysics and Ethics 119
13 The Moral Universe 127
14 The Ethical Foundations 135
Glossary of Key Terms 141
Bibliography 147
Index 149
CHAPTER 1
Prologue
Abstract The current global intellectual situation is one of confusion,
relativism, and profound distrust in any notions of Truth. The essential
reasons for our present dilemma are the loss of any belief in a goal of truth-
seeking as well as the loss of belief in universal ethical values to guide us
through life’s complex currents. Whence comes this loss? The Prologue
introduces the primary thesis that the loss of truth and the consequent
moral torpor begins with Kant’s alleged overturning of Metaphysics. The
Prologue also points to the problem of the specialization of knowledge
and the lack of understanding of the connectedness and developmental
aspect of the history of Western philosophy. The Prologue encourages
philosophers to return to their traditional role of inspirers and guides to
truth-seeking and guardians of truth.
Keywords History of Western philosophy • Metaphysics • Kant •
Cultural determinism • Cultural relativism • Greek Stoicism • Socrates:
Socratic philosophy • Plato • Aristotle • Mencius • Metaphysical truths
• Descartes • Leibniz • Spinoza • Berkeley • Hume • Hegel •
Nietzsche • Husserl • Heidegger
Our present global intellectual situation resembles being aboard a small
sailboat at sea, sometimes adrift upon a stagnant sea, and sometimes at full
sail without a rudder. We sail hither and yon at the mercy of the prevailing
© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature 1
Switzerland AG 2022
R. E. Allinson, Awakening Philosophy,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-08300-6_1
