It is no longer
possible for any one individual to be a leader in all branches of learning.
Perhaps Leibniz, who died in 1716, was the last universal scholar, and his life
is a warning rather than an example. In such a situation the enterprise of
philosophy is in a sense more difficult than ever before; no one can hope to
contribute much to the clarification of ideas in logic who is not himself a
logician, or to the clarification of ideas in physics who is not himself a
physicist, and so on throughout the fields of specialized knowledge. It thus
seems inevitable that there should have evolved philosophical disciplines
corresponding to the various branches of study and providing the frameworks upon
which they may be studied and evaluated in and of themselves. (Discussions of
particular schools of philosophy mentioned in this article are found in PHILOSOPHICAL
SCHOOLS AND DOCTRINES, WESTERN .)
(Ed.)
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