Volume 22, 2018
Metaphilosophy
Theodoros Georgiou
Pages 29-37
Ancient Ontology and Contemporary Philosophy
The term “paradigm” (Kuhn) has been used for years with pretensions to scientific validity also in metaphilosophical researches, namely in theoretical and philosophical studies, the subject of which is the historical evolution and development of the philosophical thought. Ancient ontology and contemporary philosophy are formed as two different “paradigms” of the philosophical thinking both at the contents’ level (of the problematic, the ideas and the arguments) and at the scientific level of the exposition of ideas. Ancient ontology as metaphysical research, which is called to answer the question what does the world consist of (the reality) and which the first principles of its structure are, pivots on the principle of identity and is self-determined as “phonocentric”. Contemporary philosophy as metaphilosophical research, which seeks the establishment of the philosophical rationality in the open relationship between the thing and the language, is self-determined as grammatological thought, which means that “writing” (Derrida) becomes the first principle of the philosophical thinking itself. According to Hegel, “philosophy is its own time apprehended in thoughts”. In a contemporary interpretive wording, the Hegelian definition of philosophy means that the “notion” as self-consciousness of the thing itself and reality are identical. Having as metaphilosophical criterion the Hegelian definition of philosophy both ancient ontology as metaphilosophical research and contemporary philosophy as grammatological thought constitute two different types of philosophical rationality (“paradigms” of philosophical thinking). Between these two “paradigms” of philosophical thinking a dialectical relationship is developed, which entails two things; First: that the historic research of the philosophical tradition is replaced by the metaphilosophical reflection, according to which the integration as to the content of ancient ontology in the problematic of the contemporary philosophy is the new condition of philosophical thinking. Second: the grammatological reconstruction of the philosophical thinking re-determines the relationship between the thing and the language based on the philosophical rationality, which functions as pragmatological condition for the appearance of new philosophical things, as for example is the communication and the language.