Special Section: Pruning the Tree of Knowledge

Abstract

There are several intellectual projects embedded within the Tree of Knowledge (ToK) System and they tend to blur together at critical junctions. The aim of this commentary is to identify some of these strands of analysis and their implicit metaphysical presuppositions. It is argued that the presuppositions are not consistent across the different strands. The strands can continue to be pursued independently, insofar as they have distinct purposes. However, the incompatible presuppositions are surfacing in the effort to combine the strands into a single system of analysis.