Hossein Jorjani
First publication: 2026 – 07 – 08
One of the recurring features of the history of philosophy is the search for an ultimate principle capable of unifying the diversity of reality. Although different philosophical systems identify this principle in different ways, many assign to it a comparable structural role: it serves as the highest point of reference from which the remainder of the system derives its coherence.
Among the most influential examples are:
- Plato — the Good
- Plotinus — the One
- Christianity — God
- Fichte — the Absolute I
- Hegel — Absolute Spirit
- Comte — Humanity
- Durkheim — Society
These concepts should not be regarded as equivalent. Each belongs to a different philosophical, theological, or sociological tradition and embodies distinct assumptions about reality, knowledge, and human existence. Nevertheless, each functions as an ultimate unifying principle within a comprehensive intellectual system.
The historical succession of these concepts should therefore not be understood simply as the replacement of one doctrine by another. Rather, it illustrates a recurring philosophical strategy: the attempt to explain multiplicity by reference to a single comprehensive principle. What changes from one system to another is less the structural role of the highest principle than the particular concept chosen to occupy that role.
Not every philosophical system, however, accepts the need for such an ultimate centre. Some reject the search for a final unifying principle altogether, preferring instead to understand reality as fundamentally open, plural, or continuously evolving. Whether philosophy ultimately requires an absolute organizing principle, or whether systematic thought can proceed without one, remains an open philosophical question.
Hossein Jorjani 