Philosophy entais a tradition

“The philosopher swears fidelity to no person, nor any school – not even, if he is a Thomist, to the letter of St. Thomas and every article of this teaching. He is sorely in need of teachers and of a tradition, but in order for them to teach him to think when he looks at things (which is not as simple as all that), and not, as is the case of the theologian, so that he can assume the whole of this tradition into his thought. Once this tradition has instructed him, he is free of it and makes use of it for his own work. In this sense, he is alone in the face of being; for his job is to think over that which is.”

(Maritain, The Peasant of the Garonne, p. 137 )