Philosophy Entropy | 26 May 2006
Metaphysics..
Insight by Robert Pirsig..
Metaphysics is not what Aristotle called the First Philosophy. It’s a collection of the the most general statements of a hierachical structure of thought. On one of his slips he had copied a definition of it as “that part of philosophy which deals with the nature and structure of reality” It asks such questions as, “Are the objects we perceive real or illusory ? Does the external world exist apart from our consciousness of it ? Is reality ultimately reducible to a single underlying substance ? If so, is it essentially spiritual or material ? Is the universe intelligible and orderly or incomprehensible and chaotic ?
You might think from this primary status of metaphysics that everyone would take its existence and value for granted, but this is definitely not so. Even though is has been a central part of philosophy since Ancient Greek times it is not a universally approved field of knowledge.-