I've noticed, both from my own involvement and from my perception of the involvement others have in philosophical arguments, that the deeper one gets into a certain philosophy the greater the tendency to lose one's peripheral. When you focus on only one detail of a picture you have a tendency to forget what part that detail plays in the whole picture. When you step back and take a look at the whole picture, sometimes you get a different perspective on why that detail is there, which you never would have had if you had just focused on the single detail. Opening yourself up to take in the big picture, understanding original intent, and getting to know the rest of the picture will help you gain a better understanding of the individual parts - both their purpose and other abstract implications.
I find this dilemma to be especially potent in the minds of young, aspiring ministers such as myself. Especially while I was in college. You probably already have a pretty vivit picture of the typical "college dorm debate." A few guys or girls sitting in the basement or someones dorm room debating something useless like whether or not the human being is made up of 2 or 3 parts, or if God's omniscience and omnipresence suggest that He exists in multiple dimensions. But sometimes these debates touch things that are not quite so useless. And any person who philosophizes, even famous intellectuals, can cause much damage by focusing so intently on a single point that their conclusions are obscured by their lack of peripheral. When studying the Scriptures, we call this peripheral "context."
I could say some more things on this but I want to move on to my point. I think that we all need to be carefull not to err in basing conclusions off of context-free discoveries...discoveries that are probably not discoveries at all. Just mislead conclusions - mislead by putting a philosophy into the context of our own understanding rather than in the context of the real authority. For example, I just read Hebrews 6:4-6, a passage imfamously harolded by those who believe you can lose your salvation. Years worth of debate has been spent philosophizing over the intricate details of this passage, and I know that whenever I've read over the passage in the past I would focus on that passage and do my own philosophizing in my head, completely forgetting to prayerfully acknowledge the surrounding context. This time, by the Spirit's enablement, I read it afresh and discovered verses 7-12, which do a phenominal job defining the elements of verses 4-6, erasing any influence of confusion I have ever had in the past. I encourage you to read this for yourself and I will therefore not speak of my conclusions here.
All this to say, do not depend so much on your ability to dig into deep philosophy based on minute elements. Sometimes the best way to make true discoveries is, by the enablement of the Spirit, to see surface level things as they correspond to other surface level things. Read like a hunter - who only takes focused aim through his scope once he has already found his target through constant use of his peripheral.