The unity of knowledge in the unity of consciousness
The unity of knowledge as I understand it is not the objective unity, it is not possible to gather all philosophical knowledge in an encyclopedia and give a unitary meaning to this. The variety of incompatible doctrines that circulate under the name of philosophy is unaccountable.
On the other hand, the unity of knowledge would be the unity of all the theses that circulate in all sciences, that is absolutely impossible. In the field of pure mathematics alone, there are approximately 60 thousand new (original) works every year! How am I going to read 60,000 works of pure mathematics and articulate with another field such as chemistry, which is as extensive as or greater?
The unity of knowledge in the objective and substantive sense is impossible. What is possible is to give a sense of unity to the knowledge that is accessible to you, and therefore your generation and the people in your circle who have the same interests. And secondly, how do you make the unity of knowledge acquired become the unity of your consciousness? You do this to the extent that you become responsible for the unit thus formed, that is, the conclusions of that unit become truths for you that you have to take into account not only in your intellectual life but in your practical life. It is like in Plato where there is the truth known and the truth obeyed. I mean, I know that things are like this or otherwise, not only in my thinking but also in my actions, decisions, etc., I cannot escape what I know.
Once I was asked what intellectual honesty is, I said it's simple: you don't pretend to know what you don't know and pretend you don't know what you know perfectly well. Please note: this is what guarantees the strength of your intelligence, this and only this! If you start to lie and pretend you are stupid, you can deceive others and will definitely deceive yourself.
Then the search for the unity of knowledge becomes a very important cognitive and moral discipline. And this unity of your consciousness in turn projects your sense of unity over the knowledge you have acquired. Philosophy is this: the search for the unity of knowledge in the unity of consciousness and vice versa.
From my own definition of philosophy as "unity of knowledge in the unity of consciousness and vice versa", it follows that the philosopher's first obligation is to open himself to all currents of thought, to all values that are struggling in his time, letting himself to be impregnated by them without any prior judgment and, little by little, seeking to achieve an overall intellectual attitude that does justice to the various points of view, basing on that the construction of his personality and his sense of orientation in life and in knowledge.
[Translated from here]