Abstract

I. Perception : Starting from Husserl's concept of truth this text begins by showing how immediate evidence is always covered by cultural patterns and networks, which can be studied by sociology, history, psychoanalysis, linguistics. This thesis is illustrated by a consideration of the concept of truth that reveals itself through the use of certain epistemological examples like 'The cat is on the mat' — examples which are not harmless at all, but loaden with unproved practical, esthetical and theoretical presuppositions. II. Proposition : 'Philosophy' exists as a library of texts and contexts presenting possible interpretations of our reality. To what extent do the 'truths' suggested by philosophy differ from the 'truths' of literature ? Is it possible to overcome the realm of doxa by a metaphilosophy reaching for the radical truth behind the variety of propo sed ‘truths’ out of which our philosophical traditions are composed ? Or must we choose between a restaurative conservatism and a strategic deconstruction ? Against all forms of reductive metaphilosophy it is argued that a. they are defenseless against the application of a similar metatheory to their reductions and b. that it is impossible to proclaim the end of philosophy and its search for real truth. III. Commitment : The impossibility of staying within the realm of undecided propositions implies a subjectivity which in a special sense is transcendental. The activity of the philosophical subject does not however exclude its receptivity and gratitude towards the praepositions and propositions of its philosophical traditions. A discussion of certain attempts to replace philosophy by a neosophistic rhetorics and of a theory of truth as consensus in the style of Habermas prepares the end of this paper, which is a beginning : I talk to you about our common desire for truth