An honest religious thinker is like a tightrope walker. He almost
looks as though he
were walking on nothing but air. His support is the slenderest imaginable.
And yet
it really is possible to walk on it.Nicholai Hartman suggested the well-known distinction between
‘systematic thinking’ and ‘problem thinking’.
Whereas the former begins
from a series of assumptions and proceeds to offer all-encompassing solutions,
the latter begins from a problem and considers it in depth, without striving
for comprehensive systems. Problem thinking is dialectical – it appraises
the
boundaries of the problem and the limitations of its solutions. According
to
Hartman, a typical instance of a systematic thinker is Spinoza, who created
an inclusive metaphysical system based on primary and irrefutable assumptions.
A classic example of problem thinking is the philosophy of Plato, which
is more intent on clarifying the predicament than on offering solutions,
and
hence its dialectic character.
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