Despite its millennia-long history, philosophy has not yet formed as a self-determined area of conscious reflection. This often leads to confusion, philosophy being treated as a science, or an art, which hinders the development of philosophical thought subduing it to the styles of thinking alien to it. Also, momentary political goals have always been trying to shape philosophy to class interests, dissolving it in polemics. As a result, many thinkers came to despising any philosophy at all as a useless rudiment of the primitive culture, as an underdeveloped form of reasoning preceding truly creative activities like science and art. I claim that philosophy is a separate level of reflection complementing science and art to a complete triad, and it is bound to overcome the primitive syncretism and become culturally institutionalised. This assumes the cultural recognition of the principal function of philosophy as the universal unifier, thus establishing the clear criteria for distinguishing philosophy from pseudo-philosophising. To simplify the philosophical treatment of special issues a hierarchical approach has been suggested, with the hierarchy of logic comprising the traditional classical and dialectical logic, as well as diathetical logic suited to describe hierarchies and development.