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Shiavault - a Vault of Shia Islamic Books History of Western Philosophy Preface Thilly holds the view that the only complete systems of thought are Western. I wish to briefly examine possible bases of the claim. The claim is decomposable into two parts and the first is that the Western tradition contains complete systems of thought. What does that mean? It cannot mean that everything is known.

It must mean, then, that there is something about the Western tradition that contains in principle completeness the establishment of a world view of sufficient breadth and of methods that eliminate false views or aspects of the world view. However, Western thought of the 20th century has cast serious doubt on the completeness or possibility of completing any system. From the psychological point of view, what would convince one that a system of thought is complete?

There is a tendency, perhaps tacit, that probably exists within all cultures and individuals the natural belief in or identification with the paradigms of the culture. Such paradigms present a picture of the world; and the systems of thought of the culture are an elaboration of that picture. The psychological story cannot be whole in itself. It is embedded in a system of relations among attitudes [psychology] and the institutions of society. Together, these must adequately mesh with reality.

The role of psychology would then be an over-compensation so that the tentative but otherwise valid common knowledge of society is seen as imbued with a degree of the absolute. To a degree this is functional; and, usually, held with some degree of ambiguity. Thus, with a degree of success of the elaborated picture there is a natural tendency to assume completeness.

However, there is truly no way to demonstrate this completeness because such a demonstration would depend on another, larger, picture. Even within the western intellectual traditions [pictures] there is serious doubt the intrinsic limitations of empiricism [e.g. Hume, Russell] and rationalism [e.g. Kant, GU`?del] regarding completeness. There is, however, a picture that casts doubt that possession of a complete paradigm / picture of the world is an ideal.

It is the view of the community of life as an open community in an open universe.