vol 2: Synopsis
part IV: Divine dynamics
page 32: Metaphysics
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... to restore theology to the mainstream of science
Metaphysics
Physics centres around the study of observables. Metaphysics centres on the study of what it going on behind the scenes to make the observables look the way they do. Metaphysics studies the logical consequences (and non-consequences!) of physics. In the old days, metaphysicians could not see their own conscious existence arising out of the matter described by contemporary physics. The physics outlined above, however, extends as naturally to metaphysics as any ordinal number (by the work of Cantor's theorem), is transformed into a greater ordinal number. Here lies the power of our theory: it is invariant with respect to complexity, so that we can confidently expect the properties of complex hidden systems to be reflected in simple visible systems.
Traditionally, metaphysics is seen as being 'beyond physics' (this is the literal Greek meaning of metaphysics). I think Aristotle would have called it theology. It is concerned with the causes and sources of meaning in our existence. There are two broad traditions in metaphysics which are distinguished by their perception of the relationship between appearance and reality.
The Eleatics, a school who flourished at Elea in the sixth century BC, held that there was gulf between appearance and reality. In their model, reality was one, eternal and changeless; the moving world of ordinary experience was held to be illusory. There are elements of this view in the Christian position which divides reality into one omnipotent and eternal God and the universe of human experience controlled by that God.
A more realistic view, typical of Aristotle, held that there were strong links between appearance and reality. Further, appearances pointed to the existence of invisible realities. So there is room for a general science which studies the common properties of reality, visible and invisible. The foundation of this view is the assumption (axiom, dogma, article of faith) that the world is consistent and meaningful.
Aquinas, bringing Aristotle into the Christian fold, saw metaphysics as the study of everything, tantamount to the study of God. Theology is by definition the theory of everything. Using the potency-act model developed in Aristotle's Metaphysics, Aquinas developed a detailed theory of god which attempted to reconcile the eternity, omniscience and omnipotence of god with the moving world of experience. He saw the world of experience as proof for the existence of the God he modelled.
Building on Aquinas, Lonergan found the key to metaphysics in the study of knowledge. He saw metaphysics as the general heuristic structure of all being, that is as a generic set of clues to understanding. He limited understanding to human minds, however, whereas we see it as the universal process of encoding and decoding messages associated with communication.
In the present work, the transfinite network stands as a canvas for metaphysics, a general space in which evolutionary processes find particular threads of development which grow into the incomplete future. We see appearance is part of reality, a sighting of god. It is the way the independent elements of the world communicate with one another, and us. The life of every entity in the universe depends upon and is expressed by its communication with its peers.
Books
| Aristotle (translated by H Tredennick), Metaphysics I-IX, Harvard University Press, William Heinemann 1980 Introduction: "[Aristotle] felt that there must be a regular system of sciences, each concerned with a different aspect of reality. At the same time it was only reasonable to suppose that there was a supreme science which was more ultimate, more exact, more truly Wisdom than the others. The discussion of ths science - Wisdom, Primary Philosophy or Theology, as it is variously called - and of its scope, forms the subject of the |
| Aristotle (translated by H Tredennick and G Cyril Armstrong), Metaphysics X-XIV, Oeconomica and Magna Moralia, Harvard University Press, ; William Heinemann Ltd. 1977 Jacket: 'Aristotle, great Greek philosopher, researcher, reasoner and writer, born at Stagirus in 384 B.C., was the son of a medical Doctor, Nichomachus of Phaestis. He studied under Plato at Athens and taught there 367-347; spent three years at the court of former pupil Hermeias in Asia Minor and married Pythias a relation of his; after some time in Mitylene, in 343-2 he was appointed by King Philip of Macedon to be the tutor of his teen-aged son Alexander, and had other pupils. After Philip's death in 336, Aristotle became head of his own school (of 'Peripatetics'), the Lyceum at Athens. Because of anti-Macedonian feeling there after Alexander's death in 323, he withdrew to Chalcis in Euboea and died there in 322.' Amazon back |
| Carnot, Sadi, and Translated by R H Thurston; edited and with an introduction by E Mendoza, Reflections on the Motive Power of Fire: and other papers on the second law of thermodynamics by E Clapeyron and R Clausius., Peter Smith Publisher 1977 Reflections: Everyone knows that heat can produce motion. ... in these days when the steam-engine is everywhere so well known. ... To develop this power, to appropriate it to our uses, is the object of heat engines. ... Notwithstanding the work of all kinds done by steam-engines, notwithstanding the satisfactory condition to which they have been brought today, their theory is very little understood, and the attempts to improve them are still directed almost by chance. ... In order to consider in the most general way the principle of the production of motion by heat, it must be considered independently of any mechanism or any particular agent. It is necessary to establish principles applying not only to steam-engines but to all imaginable heat engines, whatever the working substance and whatever the method by which it is operated. ... [Here enters the seed of entropy] The production of motive power is then due in steam-engines not to an actual consumption of caloric, but to its transportation from a warm body to a cold body, that is, to its reestablishment of equilibrium - an equilibrium considered as destroyed by any cause whatever, by chemical action such as combustion, or by any other.' pages 3-7. Amazon back |
| Hofstadter, Douglas R, Le Ton beau de Marot: In Praise of the Music of Language, Bloomsbury Publishing Plc, Basic Books, HarperCollins Publishers Inc 1997 Amazon: 'In the fall of 1537, a child was confined to bed for some time. The French poet Clément Marot wrote her a get-well poem, 28 lines long, each line a scant three syllables. In the mid-1980s, the outrageously gifted Douglas R. Hofstadter- il miglior fabbro of Godel, Escher, Bach - first attempted to translate this "sweet, old, small elegant French poem into English." He was later to challenge friends, relations, and colleagues to do the same. The results were exceptional, and are now contained in Le Ton Beau De Marot, a sunny exploration of scholarly and linguistic play and love's infinity. Less sunny, however, is the tragedy that hangs over Hofstadter's book, the sudden death of his wife, Carol, from a brain tumor. (Her translation is among the book's finest.) Amazon back |
| Lonergan, Bernard J F, Insight : A Study of Human Understanding (Collected Works of Bernard Lonergan : Volume 3), University of Toronto Press 1992 '... Bernard Lonergan's masterwork. Its aim is nothing less than insight into insight itself, an understanding of understanding' Amazon back |
| Popper, Karl Raimund, Conjectures and Refutations: The Growth of Scientific Knowledge, Routledge and Kegan Paul 1972 Preface: 'The way in which knowledge progresses, and expecially our scientific knowledge, is by unjustified (and unjustifiable) anticipations, by guesses, by tentative solutions to our problems, by conjectures. These conjectures are controlled by criticism; that is, by attempted refutations, which include severely critical tests.' [p viii] Amazon back |
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