![]() But it is justly made, because we are here, today, in pursuit of the truth. Metaphysics, as a study, has no boundaries. In a sense, the quarry of our pursuit is everything. Yet if this materialist account of reality can be shown to be false, from clear and undeniable reasons-if human beings have some operation which transcends the operations of corporeal organs, discernable through reflection, if knowledge of the natural world itself cannot reduce to what is discerned through empiriometric study-then we must, if we are to remain intellectually honest, ask “What else is there? How can we know it?” We must, at the very least, admit the possibility of a supersensible reality: and in the pursuits of increasing our knowledge and deepening our ability to love, in pursuing genuine human happiness and a life well-lived, we must investigate this possibility. Neuroscientists and biological psychologists have recently attempted explanations of even love in terms of a purely chemical analysis, reducing explanation of it to adrenaline, dopamine, and oxytocin Many may think that all our desires are merely corporeal many may think that all of our knowledge is merely a result of operations occurring within the brain, however little we may yet understand its functions, and that empiriometric science will eventually be able to explain all our thoughts and desires, and indeed, all the universe. Any impulse towards something not known, any appreciation of or desire for something which is not understood is not a complete human love, but merely animal eros that is, an operation of corporeal desire. But to love, one must first know we cannot love rightly that which we do not know, and we cannot have knowledge through love alone. ![]() Without love, human beings live an impoverished and unfulfilling life, truly. This sentiment is not false, but it is misplaced, and does, so to speak, put the cart before the horse. This message will be rejected by the contemporary sentiment that love is primary among human needs that human beings most desire and attain fulfillment in loving and being loved. But what is common to all of these answers and yet expressed fully by none of them is this: philosophy alone, among those things which are provided to us as possible by our natural abilities and circumstance-and especially metaphysics, which is the summit of philosophical inquiry-fulfills our most fundamental human need. It may be said that philosophy is the highest pursuit of natural reason: true. It may be said that the unexamined life is not worth living: again, true. It may be said that philosophy will sharpen your intellect: this is also true. For instance, it may be said that empiriometric science cannot provide all of the answers: this is true. Answers have been proposed for thousands of years, many of them both compelling and true. Oftentimes, the contemporary university attempts to relegate philosophical study to the category of “mental training”-it makes one better at critical thinking, at reasoning, at arguing, but does not actually teach anything it trains you to think, but does not give you any answers.Īttempting to answer the question we are here considering-the question of “why study philosophy?”-is nothing new. This introduction might just as well be titled “Why study philosophy at all?” For while there are many schools of philosophical thought which strive to make it applicable to contemporary life, most of these schools do so only by aping the methods and goals of modern day empiriometric sciences (which interpret the world through quantification of things insofar as they can be observed by the senses), and with considerably less certitude or resulting progress. Studying metaphysics will not move you one iota closer to a better job, to a more diversified skillset, to a higher earning potential. At best, it is seen as facilitating an ability for critical thinking or deconstructive analysis of arguments but metaphysics as a science-as a real, substantive, revelatory process of human inquiry-is a mere pipe dream of religious academicians or would-be gnostic know-it-alls. There are few topics which seem more unsuited to the 21 st century university than that of metaphysics: that is, the study of “being as being.” The subject is impossibly vague the claims it makes seem inescapably representative of opinion rather than fact it is an impractical field of study, advancing no discernable good for those that undertake its study. It explains the germ of my Thomism as well as my rejection of modernism… in terms of metaphysics, at least. The following is from the introduction I give in my metaphysics course, last taught at the University of St.
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