The Metaphysical Foundation of Buddhism and Modern Science

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Section IX. European philosophy is founded upon Plato's dialogues, which
in their methods are mainly an endeavour to elicit philosophic categories
from a dialectic discussion of the meanings of language taken in
combination with shrewd observation of the actions of man and of the
forces of nature.
But in one dialogue, the Sophist, Plato explicitely considers the methods
of philosophy. One of his conclusions is to point out the limitations of
common speech. Mere dialectic, uncriticized is a fallacious instrument,
the mark of the Sophist. For example, Plato insists that not-being is
itself a form of being. Thus in philosophy linguistic discussion is a tool,
but should never be a master. Language is imperfect both in its words
and in its forms. Thus we discover two main errors to which philosophic
method is liable, one is the uncritical trust in the adequacy of language,
and the other is the uncritical trust in the strained attitude of
introspection as the basis for epistemology.
But since the life-time of Plato nearly two and a half thousand years have
intervened, including the continuous activity of European philosophic
thought, pagan, Christian, secular. It is widely held that astable, wellknown
philosophic vocabulary has been elaborated, and that in philosophic
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