2006年考研英语模拟试题一(15)

However, Victor Hugo said that if he were writing for his own time only, he would have to break his pen and throw it away. (42) . And it seems to me that the most frequent objections to modern and pre-modern philosophers come from the incompatibility of their philosophies with what is considered to be established scientific fact. For instance, Plato's theory of forms does not, to me, seem to jibe with modern physics and cosmology. And although I can only vaguely glimpse the psychology which underlies Kant, it seems to be highly questionable.

(43) .

(44) . History is, of course, necessary to any understanding of a philosophy: how it came about, what people did with it, etc. Sartre, although he developed some of his ideas from Nietzsche and Kierkegaard, probably could not have expounded those same ideas of existentialism in their times; Nietzsche, who popularized the idea that "God is dead", could not have written in the time of Descartes; and Descartes could not have expressed his radically individualist ideas during the time of Plato.

I suppose that my point, which I am being exceedingly long-winded about, is that philosophy does not (and should not, and must not) stand apart from the rest of the sciences. (45) . Although the other sciences can provide us with data, observations, and theories, only philosophy can integrate those into a coherent whole, tell us what to do with them, or provide a meaningful context for using these facts in our daily lives.