As a philosopher, speculation means something quite specific. It deals, not just with a specific set of methods, but with a particular historical period, in which speculative philosophy arose as a prominent philosophical school. The promises and pitfalls of speculation are both present in The Journal of Speculative Philosophy, started by William Torrey Harris in 1867. His opening article, ‘The Speculative’, gives an instructive portrait of what Harris saw as the tasks of speculation properly employed.
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