Growth Points in Philosophy: Some Considerations

Philosophy, on the one hand, is not an extrahistoric and extrasocial enterprise, on the other hand, its mode of existence cannot be viewed from the standpoint of progress: when applied to philosophy, the methods of controlling the growth of scientific knowledge and the procedures of sociology of science (such as bibliometric methods of quotation index) can give no adequate account of it. The paper proposes to use the metaphors of matrix and vector to describe the different strategies of philosophic discourse in which a philosopher's thought, while originating from his private existence, gets subsequently expanded into a philosophic experience that takes on a supra-individual meaning. The personal forms of philosophic discourse are located within various fields of thematization (for the 20th century, these are the spirit, life, existence, language, communication), and it is here that the growth of philosophy occurs, the research resources are gradually accumulated, the conflicts between philosophies and the pursuit of truth happen.