Metaphysics

Seoul-trekearth

Metaphysics

Revised for an academia.edu entry on December 26, 2022

Louis P. Pojman  defines metaphysics as beyond physics. The study of ultimate reality, which is not accessible/available through empirical senses. He lists free will, causality, the nature of matter, immortality and the existence of God as being within the study of metaphysics. Pojman (1995: 598).

These are of course familiar topics on this philosophical theology and philosophy of religion website, although I do not use the term 'metaphysics' very often.

British philosopher, Simon Blackburn explains the term was used for three books from Aristotle after 'Physics' and is a term that raises enquiry about questions that cannot be answered by science and its empirical methods. Blackburn (1996: 240). 

Blackburn mentions the hostility to metaphysics throughout modern times especially as David Hume mentioned having it 'committed to the flames' in 'Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding' book  xii Pt 3.  Hume (1748) Blackburn (1996:  240).

It is assumed by some naturalists that the scientific method would be the only way to answer any real questions that would arise within metaphysics. Blackburn (1996: 240).

Panayot Butcharov defines it generally as the philosophical investigation of nature, and its reality, in how it is constituted. The study of non-physical entities, for example God, would be addressed. Butcharov (1996: 489). Metaphysics would be rejected by positivism on the basis of being meaningless. Since it is not empirically viable. Butcharov (1996: 489). Positivism being a form of empiricism viewing empirical science as the means of gaining knowledge and metaphysics, theology, and even aspects of philosophy as being viewed as questionable in obtaining knowledge.

A key point rendered is with that of the philosopher of religion, Pojman: The study of ultimate reality, which is not accessible/available through empirical senses. I view this as correct, and since empirical science is limited on these realities then it cannot be used as the only way to answer any real questions that would arise within metaphysics.

My views are as a Reformed, Biblical, philosophical theologian and also a philosopher of religion that can attempt to look at religion and Christianity from a secular, 'outside' of the Bible perspective.

There is extant:

Documented historical revelation within the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament
Documented historical revelation with the New Testament
These make up the Bible

There is also philosophical reasoning, speculation, propositions and conclusions and therefore arguments within philosophical theology and theistic, philosophy of religion that can be made in regard to free will, determinism, first cause, everlasting existence, life and death, and other issues.

These two areas combine to make up some very serious, academic disciplines that obtain knowledge such as Old Testament Studies, New Testament Studies, Biblical Archeology/Archaeology, Biblical Languages and Linguistics, Biblical Studies, Biblical Theology, Philosophical Theology and Philosophy of Religion.

At the MPhil level quite likely, and at a PhD level most likely, one within a Religion or Philosophy Department will have interaction with modern science. For my PhD revisions after my verbal Viva I was required to consult several science journals in regard to consciousnesses and to implement this scientific research into my Doctoral thesis.

I would reason that the dismissive conclusions of positivism and other empiricists, in basic agreement, are incorrect and that there are legitimate, serious, complex academic metaphysical disciplines related to Theology and Philosophy at times. Science is still, of course, used as an academic discipline to obtain truth as well. 

But, metaphysics and scientific, empirical, research and findings, do not cancel each other out, academically.

ARISTOTLE (1936) Physics, Translated by Apostle, Hippocrates G. (with Commentaries and Glossary). Oxford: University Press. 

ARISTOTLE (2018). Physics, Translated by Reeve, C. D. C. Cambridge, MA: Hackett Publishing Company. 

BLACKBURN, SIMON (1996) Oxford Dictionary of Philosophy, Oxford, Oxford University Press.

BONJOUR, LAURENCE. (1996) ‘A Priori’, in Robert Audi (ed.), The Cambridge Dictionary of Philosophy, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.

BUTCHAROV, PANAYOT (1996) ‘Metaphysics’, in Robert Audi (ed.), The Cambridge Dictionary of Philosophy, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.

EDWARDS, PAUL AND ARTHUR PAP (1973) (eds), ‘A priori knowledge: Introduction’, A Modern Introduction To Philosophy, New York, The Free Press. 

GUYER, PAUL AND ALLEN W, in KANT, IMMANUEL (1781)(1787)(1998) Critique of Pure Reason, Translated and edited by Paul Guyer and Allen W. Wood, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

HUME, DAVID (1739-1740)(1973) ‘A Treatise of Human Nature’, in Paul Edwards and Arthur Pap (eds.), A Modern Introduction To Philosophy, New York, The Free Press. 

HUME, DAVID  (1748) (1910)(2014) 'An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding', text derived from the Harvard Classics Volume 37, 1910, P.F. Collier & Son, web edition published by eBooks@Adelaide. Last updated Wednesday, February 26, 2014 at 13:38.

An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding

HUME, DAVID (1779)(2004) Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion, Lawrence, Kansas. 

KANT, IMMANUEL (1781)(1787)(1998) Critique of Pure Reason, Translated and edited by Paul Guyer and Allen W. Wood, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. 

KANT, IMMANUEL (1781)(1787)(1929)(2006) Critique of Pure Reason, Translated by Norman Kemp Smith, London, Macmillan. 

KANT, IMMANUEL (1788)(1997) Critique of Practical Reason, Translated by Mary Gregor (ed.), Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. 

KANT, IMMANUEL (1788)(1898)(2006) The Critique of Practical Reason, Translated by Thomas Kingsmill Abbott, London, Longmans, Green, and Co. 

KANT, IMMANUEL (1791)(2001) ‘On The Miscarriage of All Philosophical Trials in Theodicy’, in Religion and Rational Theology, Translated by George di Giovanni and Allen Wood, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press. 

KENT, JOHN (1999) ‘Positivism’, in Alan Richardson and John Bowden (eds.), New Dictionary of Christian Theology, Kent, SCM Press Ltd. 

POJMAN, LOUIS P. (1996) Philosophy: The Quest for Truth, New York, Wadsworth Publishing Company. 

WEIRICH, PAUL. (1996) ‘Comte, Auguste’, in Robert Audi (ed.), The Cambridge Dictionary of Philosophy, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.

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Of course if one fell over the edge for safety reasons he/she by design would fall into a catchment area of some sort where other water is stored. Even so, not a place where I would want do a martial arts workout.

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