by Orestes J. Gonzalez

Created on: September 09, 2008   Last Updated: November 08, 2010

No one questions that the historical unfolding of philosophical speculation is intricate and complex. Almost any 'combination of color' can be found in the philosophical positions that thinkers have advanced throughout the centuries.

It is clear as well that the proliferation of philosophical systems with their claim of universality is no guarantee that they are true. Many of them are patently false.

The question then arises: 'Is there one, true philosophy that could serve as a universal point of reference for the different philosophical schools?'

The issues involved here are fundamental ones and cover a tremendous amount of ground. It is indeed possible to argue at the level of the particulars involved in the different philosophical positions. But the general outlines of an answer can and should be given.

Pope John Paul II (1920-2005), for example, formulated an answer in the following terms:

"Although times change and knowledge increases, it is possible to discern a core of philosophical insight within the history of thought as a whole.

"It is as if we had come upon an implicit philosophy. And precisely because it is shared in some measure by all, this knowledge should serve as a kind of reference point for the different philosophical schools.

"Once reason successfully intuits and formulates the first universal principles of being and correctly draws from them conclusions which are coherent both logically and ethically, then it may be called right reason or, as the ancients called it, 'orth(o-)s logos' - 'recta ratio.'" (1)

Here I would like to stress the fact that Pope John Paul II explicitly identified some fundamental aspects of the 'philosophy of being' as reference point for the different philosophical schools.

A most authoritative statement in this regard is recorded in his encyclical letter "Fides et Ratio," when he says, "The 'philosophy of being' is strong and enduring because it is based upon the very 'act of being itself' (ipse actus essendi) which allows a full and comprehensive openness to reality as a whole." (2)

And here is how John Paul II explains the dynamism and openness of the philosophy of being:

"What is meant by this characteristic 'openness' of the 'philosophy of being' is an 'openness' to the whole of reality in all its parts and dimensions, without either reducing reality or confining thought to particular forms or aspects (and without turning singular aspects into absolutes), as intelligence demands in the name of objective

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