Ignasian Metaphysics 1

 # On the Nature of Metaphysics

What is metaphysics? Metaphysics is not about physics even if it has the name. Metaphysics is instead about the fundamental nature of reality. The supreme question of metaphysics is what is reality? What is reality ultimately or at its core essence? One may easily answer that reality is simply what we see, but what is that which we see? If we answer the universe and the world, then we have to ask, we have to keep asking until we discover that which satisfies the intellect, the truth of reality. The reason metaphysics is called that way is because there is a central thesis in the whole study of metaphysics that metaphysics is beyond physics, that reality transcends the physical world, something many people deny today. Therefore, metaphysics can be aided by experience but it must also use the supreme absolute reason which all humans have.

# On the Method of Metaphysics

We have discerned the nature of metaphysics, how are we to conduct metaphysics then? The whole of metaphysics has its foundation in abstraction. Abstraction simply means observing the similarity of various objects and dealing with the similar properties they all share. An abstract object is a common property which alone does not exist in concrete reality. Therefore, the higher the abstraction, the deeper the metaphysics and the closer we are to the fundamental nature of reality. After all abstractions we shall reach the deepest abstract and that is what we all call God. The deepest object of metaphysics is God, and yet God is also the foundation of all metaphysics.

Therefore we can formulate a general method of metaphysics. We first observe the sensory experience, then we abstract the meaning. The meaning of sensory experiences are rational experiences. We then observe the rational experience and then we abstract the meaning. The abstraction of rational experiences is what we call God. Once we reach God, we are not done. We bring God back down to the lower realities to illuminate them and understand them further. Then we repeat this ad eternam to eternally progress towards God.

Now one may notice that currently there are no formal methods of metaphysics. This is true as in the beginning we have no tools of metaphysics. The supreme tool of metaphysics is what is called logic. Logic is at once the supreme reality of God and also the way to God. Yet since we do not possess God fully right now, we can only have shadows of logic and we must work our way towards logic using the absolute use of intuitive reason. The thesis here is that everyone with a rational intellect has capacity to see the truth and see God, but there is a cloud which hides God from us. As such at this point there can only be a general method of metaphysics.

# Metaphysics, Science, and Religion

In the highest metaphysical definition, all these 3 are the same. Metaphysics and science and religion are all the same. Only in the lowest realities are they so distinct and separate. I shall illuminate both realities. Metaphysics concerns God as the highest reality and creation as the lower reality. Science concerns truth as the highest reality and appearances as the lower reality. Religion is simply the practice of these 2 studies. In the lower reality, metaphysics concerns God from the perspective of reason. Science concerns God from the perspective of sense. Religion concerns God from the perspective of God. 

What distinguishes metaphysics and science with religion is that religion is the process of God touching man, thus the concept of divine revelation, while metaphysics and science is the process of man reaching God through sense and reason. As such, one can only go so far in metaphysics to reach God. When one has reached God, the self becomes united with God and the work of metaphysics becomes united with the work of religion. As such, a saint will have a united understanding of God from all sides, from the side of God, from the side of reason, and from the side of sense, which is all comprehended in the side of God for God is all inclusive.

However, in the lowest realities, instead of cooperating these 3 studies fight each other. They are all prideful and arrogant, possessing no hint of divinity whatsoever, instead becoming a mere clothing to cover up the humiliating egoism each person of this lowest reality has. Even religion becomes not religion, metaphysics becomes not metaphysics, and science becomes pseudoscience. Yet this is part of the reality which must be overcome in the metaphysical struggle. All must be saved from this hellhole of pride and arrogance, where everything is mere names and no substance or concept is contained in any of these things. As such, let us rise above mere names and truly be the metaphysics, the science, and the religion we are meant to be.

# Metaphysics, Epistemology, and Ethics

What is the relationship between metaphysics, epistemology, and ethics? Metaphysics act as the supreme foundation of all the sciences of philosophy. Metaphysics provides the reality of knowledge and the reality of good. The reality of knowledge and of good is grounded in the supreme reality of God as concerned in metaphysics. However, let us investigate it further. At the level of God, metaphysics, epistemology, and ethics is the same exact thing. Just as metaphysics, science, and religion are the same in God. However, in the lower realities, distinctions exist outside of God.

Classically, metaphysics grounds both epistemology and ethics. Epistemology provides certainty for metaphysics and ethics. While ethics provide the purpose for epistemology and metaphysics. They reflect the Most Holy Trinity and they cannot survive without each other. Metaphysics always has ethics in it, as without ethics we will not even be able to move in metaphysics. Epistemology is also necessary in metaphysics, as it provides the method of motion. Ethics is the cause of motion while epistemology is the method of motion. Within ethics, metaphysics is necessary to express that it is a reality which exists. Epistemology is necessary to make certain what is ethical and what is needed to move. Within epistemology, ethics is obviously necessary to move within epistemology. While metaphysics in epistemology is the grounding of knowledge as a real object. Therefore this sufficiently demonstrates the Trinitarian nature of metaphysics, epistemology, and ethics.

# Metaphysics is Immaterial

This is a very foundational thesis of metaphysics, but it does require the assumption that immaterial realities exist. The problem is, it is so obvious that immaterial realities exist. One has to actually find a reason that only material reality exists and that materialism is true, which it obviously is not. The supreme proof of immaterial reality is the very existence of ideas and experiences. All kinds of experiences and ideas or abstract entities are proof of immaterial reality. Mathematics also comes to mind. If one wishes to redefine existence to exclude immaterials, that is fine but they must come up with a new term to describe the ontological status of abstract and immaterial realities.

This has been addressed in the method of metaphysics, but it is good to reemphasize it. Since metaphysics is fundamentally immaterial, then the methods cannot rely solely on material modes of experience or measurement. That is why I have written that the supreme method of metaphysics is reason, not even mysticism. As here metaphysics stands as the mediator of science and God. Mysticism or religion is the domain of God Himself, but that must be translated into something feasible or practical and the translator is metaphysics. Metaphysics and science is already included within God, so God does translate Himself to religion in the best way possible as manifested in the Catholic religion. Nevertheless this shows how metaphysics is immaterial and that affects the very method or pursuit of metaphysics.

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