I studied Western philosophy for a few years as a younger man. I recall a graduate course on metaphysics, delivered by Henry B. Veatch, one the most widely published and decorated American philosophers of his time. It would be incorrect to call Veath a “showman,” but, trust me, no one fell asleep listening to him speak.
Metaphysics is defined as “the branch of philosophy that deals with the first principles of things, including abstract concepts such as being, knowing, substance, cause, identity, time, and space.” All this sounds fine, until we consider that most of these ideas are now more properly the domain of science.
Yes, Kant told us that space and time are “forms of our intuition,” but in the 21st Century, we’re more answer questions on this subject via references to Einstein or Schoedinger.
Aristotle, on the most important early metaphysicians, explained that “to be is to be a substance,” but nowadays, if we want to understand the fundamental building blocks of the universe, we turn to theoretical physicists.
For better or for worse, the heyday of philosophy seems to be behind us.
Trump’s (fairly successful) attempts to divide America are just a means to the end of staying in power so as to be able to continue to loot the U.S. treasury.
At this point, there are three essential factions in the United States:
- A small number of extremely powerful billionaires
- The MAGA base of white nationalist / hateful morons who believe that only Trump can save us from communism, racial impurity, and godlessness
- Decent, educated people
People have been dancing around the faith/reason duality for more than 2000 years. Aristotle worked out the rules of logic around 350 BCE, and Thomas Aquinas assumed the task of using them to prove the existence of God in the 13th Century CE. Descartes came along a couple of hundred years later, and made some improvements on all this, but we’re still left with very little.
As I told my nephew once when he was assigned a college paper on this, “You can’t have your metaphysical cake and eat it too. You either believe in things for which there is evidence, or you don’t.”
Moreover, as shown at left, faith runs headlong into logical inconsistencies.
Wonder who this “patriot” voted for.
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