The dialogical philosophy: La philosophie dialoguée

Abstract

This essay points out the necessity of evoking several philosophical systems in order to realize the evolution of the scientific theory of knowledge in modern physics. It proposes a sort of spectrum of philosophical systems with seven conceptions set in the following order : realism, empiricism, positivism, rationalism, formalism, conventionalism, idealism. A double filiation unites these philosophies in the center of the spectrum, so that, rationalism, in conjunction with technical materialism, seems to be the most strongly established philosophy, and the backbone of modern scientific thought. Rationalism, far from representing a detached point of view, appears as a dialectical philosophy as soon as it seeks its confirmation in technical experience.