Introduction: The First Jolts

Abstract

Philosophy is a rather peculiar endeavor, if only because, unlike the positive ciences, it admits of no progress. On the contrary, the bone of contention among the discipline’s most illustrious representatives, from Greek Antiquity onwards, concerns who is capable of regressing further and better to the undisputed “first principles” — an Aristotelian term, which remains applicable to thinkers before and after Aristotle. Why this obsession with origins, beginnings, or underlying causes? Why are these concepts so seductive for human understanding? And, also, why is philosophy bent on asking the question “Why?” and, subsequently, on explaining the world with reference to a single all-encompassing element, concept, or force?