The Systemic Unity of Philosophy Through Holism and Realism

Abstract Given the increasing specialization of contemporary philosophical inquiry, this paper asks whether philosophy can still be conceived as a unitary form of knowledge endowed with a fundamental function underlying its various branches. It argues that the essential nature of philosophy lies in thought's never‐ending metatheoretical self‐transcendence towards ever more comprehensive explanations and justifications. The paper defends this metaphilosophical conception by showing how it provides a coherent interpretation of epistemological and semantic holism within a realist ontological framework. Building primarily on Hilary Putnam's contribution to the contemporary debate on holism and realism, it develops this metatheoretical integration of metaphilosophy and epistemology from a pragmatic‐transcendental perspective. Philosophy thus emerges as an open and unitary system of mutually irreducible yet interconnected theoretical metastructures, preserving both the constitutive openness and the unity of knowledge as a whole.