Definite And Indefinite

Author(s): George Burch
Publisher: George Burch

Page 12

36 G. B. BURCH important point is not the number but the alternation. If we were passive receptors of fact, like photographic plates, we would have science but not philosophy. Being human, we actively portray the facts, as artists, according to our diverse temperaments. These diverse portrayals do not pervert the facts but perfect them by making them significant. Active portrayal requires a commitment to some evaluation. Even the searcher for absolute objectivity has a commitment, though a paradoxical one, for he has committed himself to purging his experience of all subjectivity, to finding his soul by losing it. Searchers for absolute subjectivity, absolute togetherness, definite form, definite matter, and definite thought have made other commitments. Only science is noncommittal. Every philosophy is based on a primary commitment to the definite or the indefinite and a secondary commitment to one of the alternative forms of either. Commitment to an alterative is opposed both to the dogmatic view that there are no alternatives and to the liberal view that different alternatives may be pursued simultaneously. According to the dogmatist, there is one path leading to the mountain top of truth. According to the liberal, there are different paths converging to the same peak. According to the alternatist, there are different paths diverging to different peaks. There are many mountains, but each has only one summit, and the climber who attains it has achieved his goal.