THIS ESSAY has a leading thread, whose origins may be retraced
to Francis Bacon’s The Great Instauration: one day, the principles
of science will be so close to the heart and the essence of things that
philosophy will be able to find in them its own foundations. Let us
temper that wish and speak only of philosophy of knowledge; let
us, on the contrary, bolster it and say that such a day has arrived,
and there you have the summary of this book.
The time has come to force our way out of a current crisis in
epistemology. There is indeed a crisis, for unlike the flourishing
situation in the history of knowledge, the philosophical reflection
about science has lost its way—or stagnates. The fashionable authors see only uncertainties, paradigms without enduring principles, an absence of method, and a presence of erratic revolutions,
precisely when we should be trumpeting the success of a science
whose extent and consistency are unprecedented. To counter this
deficiency we can turn only to ancient thinkers, no doubt wiser,
but also unable to provide the required antidote, for their science
is no longer ours; it has progressed too much.