METAPHYSICS (NDMU Undergraduate Students)

INTODUCTION:

The history of philosophy tells us about the rise and fall of metaphysics. To date, metaphysics is facing new challenges. Plurality rather than unity, change rather than sameness mark the consciousness of our postmodern time. Becoming rather than permanence is paramount. There is a marked emphasis on appearances or the phenomenon rather than the reality beneath. This has led to a failure to penetrate the depths of the "there is."

The positivistic view of language, which operates on the principle of verifiability, has dominated the scientific disciplines.[1] That is why the metaphysical consideration on the investigation of reality has become captive of the positivistic view of language. To a postmodern mind, Metaphysics, perceived as meta-narrative, turns out to be useless and even oppressive.

To some, metaphysics has become an opium, because it diverts the human intelligence from the relevant human problems. It has become "useless to pursue, and ultimately dead as a cultural presence."[2] Such was the pronouncements that come out of Paris by the French deconstruction.[3]

We cannot deny some value of these changes and the plurality of the phenomena that have preoccupied scientific research. However, there is still the need to continually penetrate and dig into the profundity and immense richness of the “there is” (il y a), the indeterminate unity of being. There is still validity in our attempt to answer the question of ultimacy in human existence. We still have to deal with the ultimate underlying principles. And this is, in the main, the task of metaphysics – to unveil the implicit to explicit.

[1] Logical positivism has influenced the empirical scientific disciplines. The Vienna Circle became the leading group whose work was mainly based on the Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus of Ludwig Wittgenstein. However, recently, there is already new understanding to scientific research, which is slowly departing from logical positivistic view of science. (This is elaborated in detail in philosophy of science course.)
[2] William Desmond & Joseph Grance, ed., Being and Dialectic, State University of New York Press, Albany, 2000, p. vii.
[3] Ibid. p. vii