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A little bit of background:

As some of you may have noticed, my main interest in philosophy is of metaphysics. I've studied philosophy in a very postmodern environment; but contra to the people around me I grew fond of the modern philosophy - of Leibniz and Spinoza, Kant and the Neo-Kantians - and have always pushed back from the postmodern view while still absorbing some of it to my critical thinking.

Throughout all of my readings and arguments (especially since I've joined this forum) I've always questioned my thoughts, and the postmodern post-truth ideas have always lingered in the back of my head. One of those ideas is that metaphysics is "over", it's some kind of a dogma that the 20th century has rid itself of, particularly because metaphysics is the field of interpretation, and as a good Jew I should know that almost everything is interpretable to fit almost anything. And when we can take something and interpret it to fit whatever we want, it'd imply that this something is essentially meaningless on-its-own (i.e. it doesn't contain any objective truth).

Now I'm not going to talk about the benefits of metaphysics, I'm just going to ask if the statement "metaphysics holds no objective truth, only subjective one" holds water? Is there any "scientific" meaning to study metaphysics (other than being an interesting field to provoke thought-experiments that may lead to scientific theories)?

Edit:

I'll try to elaborate a little bit further, influenced by Peter's answer and the comments section in it.

What I'm trying to emphasize here when I'm talking about the "subjectivity" of metaphysics comes to light when we consider metaphysics as mostly the interpretational part of it - where the big ideas such as naturalism, idealism, nominalism, solipsism, etc, comes to mind. As Peter puts it, we can consider the "results" of the purely analytical research of metaphysics to be essentially the same for each and every philosopher that has ever approached it. But the interpretation of these results are, as Carnap said, "serves for the expression of the general attitude of a person towards life", and can't comprehend some objective truth.

That's the subjectivity I'm pointing at here. Hope this clears things up.

Yechiam Weiss
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  • If metaphysics can be scientifically tested, it's not metaphysics anymore - it's physics. – rus9384 Jul 21 '18 at 14:00
  • @rus9384 that's definitely not what I'm asking. – Yechiam Weiss Jul 21 '18 at 14:29
  • It's definitely not possible to undestand what are you even asking then. It's obvious that any natural scientific theory holds some untestable postulates which we can interpret as metaphysics. But that's wrong that there is no objective truth in it. You can "guess" that truth but can't know if it is truth. – rus9384 Jul 21 '18 at 16:12
  • @rus9384 sorry if my wording was harsh, didn't mean it to be. What I mean is that I'm not talking about testability, and I really don't want to go into that discussion (as I've seen it a lot in the forum). Subjectivity and objectivity doesn't come from the ability to test something; that'd be positivitm at best. Surely you can say that testing a theory may give it more "objectivity", but such objectivity will be a social one, not metaphysical one. – Yechiam Weiss Jul 21 '18 at 17:38
  • Well, if it is to be understood by others it can not be "completely" subjective. And as you seem to know what you describe is the "post-truth" position of postmodernist cultural relativism, which is controversial, and that it is not the only one available. So there can be no answer. Could you rephrase the question to make it more answerable on SE? – Conifold Jul 21 '18 at 21:07
  • You may want to look into Emil Fackenheim's views. I have read Fackenheim on various subjects, he's sort of a grumpy fellow which I enjoy, but I don't agree with him on everything. I have not read this paper.https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/j.1468-0114.1965.tb06301.x – Gordon Jul 22 '18 at 06:35
  • The prophets did not worry about objective and subjective. Essentially, they had problems to solve, which is always what we humans do is to solve problems (when we have big problems we need big solutions), and on top of that, we will probably not be able to enjoy the "luxury" of "postmodernism" for much longer, at least in my opinion. – Gordon Jul 22 '18 at 07:46
  • Then second part of my comment is suited for your question: you can guess the objective truth (if such exists), but can't know if you guessed correctly. – rus9384 Jul 22 '18 at 10:45
  • Isn't most of the science today subjective ? – Overmind Jul 23 '18 at 12:33
  • When it comes to the word "objective," I like to use a rather odd definition: "An objective fact is a subjective fact such that the agent believes it is not possible for any rational agent to arrive at anything contradictory." It falls short of what many people think of as "objective," but in these sorts of situations, it may be a convenient definition to choose to use. – Cort Ammon Jul 23 '18 at 20:15
  • @CortAmmon it actually is very useful, but it may present two problems: a) the objectivity will be mostly determined by the social consensus, and b) although you absolutely can state that we simply can't come to that, I do find it rather uncomfortable that we'd not consider the objective as what Kant would call the "transcendental" objective; i.e. that it's wholly restrained by our social constraints. This seems like a very postmodern view that I just try to avoid as much as I can. – Yechiam Weiss Jul 24 '18 at 03:01
  • @YechiamWeiss I find it effective to push such a transcendental concept off, akin to how we push off actual infinity with the concept of potential infinity. If one could identify all possible rational agents and determine that they would all arrive at the same conclusion, one could consider that to be an actualized objective statement. I suppose, in a way, the argument goes back a few thousand years -- instead of Kant's approaches, we have Plato's Cave. – Cort Ammon Jul 24 '18 at 05:15
  • @CortAmmon and I'm perfectly fine with that; the problem is that this solution seems to me applicable in the mindset of a postmodernist - the objective truth is determined by society. And I'm not saying it's a wrong conclusion - I personally think there's a lot of truth in such proposition - but we're simply going back to square one here (in terms of the question). – Yechiam Weiss Jul 24 '18 at 15:32
  • A follow up question might be whether one can know one objective truth or not. If one cannot know any one objective truth, then the rules of logic would suggest that metaphysics, a subset of "everything" must also not contain one objective truth that can be known. On the other hand, if one can name one objective truth that they know, then that helps define what "objective" means. – Cort Ammon Jul 24 '18 at 15:38
  • I probe the issue because science has a notorious tendency to hand-wave definitions of things like "observation," calling them "objective" without digging any further. If we define "objective" to match the concept I was given in my science classes many years ago, it related to empiricism, in which case I can write an answer to your question in the negative, because metaphysics, as typically defined, is not empirical. However, there are other uses of "objective," such as "objectively good" which are not empirical and which provide a more difficult quesiton to answer. – Cort Ammon Jul 24 '18 at 15:40
  • @CortAmmon and this is exactly the classic modern-postmodern debate I'm familiar with. A modernist would give examples such as "cogito ergo sum" or "transcendental idealism". – Yechiam Weiss Jul 24 '18 at 15:46
  • Then that would be an answer. You ask whether "metaphysics holds no objective truth, only subjective one," and declare an objective metaphysical truth, thus the answer to your question must be false. Now, of course, science had nothing to do with that answer, so if you'd like, I can answer the second question you asked within that framework (is there a "scientific" meaning to studying metaphysics). – Cort Ammon Jul 24 '18 at 15:52
  • I've not yet read the other responses, but the first thing that comes to mind is that the statement is inherently circular because metaphysics since Kant has revolved around this question of defining exactly what determines and makes possible the object as opposed to subject. The very question is Kantian in its metaphysics without realizing its own broader conditions. – ClearMountainWay Jul 25 '18 at 16:10
  • @ClearMountainWay I wouldn't say that, I would instead say that in a Kantian context there answer is obvious - we can't comprehend "objective" metaphysics, hence making our metaphysics subjective; thus rendering the very claim for metaphysics circular. So you could say that approaching the question in a Kantian context would result in a circular answer (although this is easily solvable too-- as Kant says, there's a distinct limit to what our objective view can comprehend, and that is the only objective metaphysics we can make sense of.) – Yechiam Weiss Jul 29 '18 at 15:42
  • @ClearMountainWay but what I'm asking is a meta-metaphysical question, "outside" of the scope of the Kantian metaphysics. – Yechiam Weiss Jul 29 '18 at 15:43

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You ask some great questions.

I would call Metaphysics a science of logic. It produces clear and unambiguous results which may be tested and retested until the end of time in any universe and which will never change. It is, as Bradley notes, an 'antidote for dogmatic superstition' and this is because logical analysis is dispassionate and iconoclastic. Logic forces us to abandon bad theories and to normalise on the correct view.

Metaphysics is not subjective but a matter of analysis and logic. Nearly all metaphysicians arrive at the same conclusions and vary only over interpretation. Thus Carnap, Russell, Tyson, Chalmers, Bradley, Nagarjuna, Aurobindo, Dennett, Wittgenstein and Lao Tsu can all agree on its results. Its results are no more subjective than those of number theory.

(The disagreement between these philosophers is only over interpretation and it disguises a complete agreement over logical results. They all agree that metaphysics does not endorse a positive result but only the Perennialist has a workable explanation for this. Thus what for Nagarjuna and Bradley is the way forward is for Carnap and Chalmers an insurmountable barrier to knowledge. Philosophy is an odd business.)

Metaphysics is misunderstood in the West and vastly underrated as a source of knowledge. (Russell even states that it isn't one). This is because philosophers in this tradition reject the results of logic and prefer to speculate free of analysis. This leads to charges that Metaphysics is subjective, a matter of opinion and a waste of time. However, if we do the sums we arrive at the results and there is no arguing with them.

If philosophers accepted the results of logic then Metaphysics would be understood as a proof of 'what is the case' regarding the nature of Reality. But the preferred approach is to reject them and then accuse Metaphysics of being useless.

If you read the short preface to the current Blackwell Guide to Metaphysics you'll see the problem writ large. In summary it states that Metaphysics is a waste of time. This is how dire philosophy has become in academia. If we do the sums we get the results just as we do in mathematics but not everyone likes those results or makes an effort to understand them and then metaphysics gets the blame for their poor workmanship. But only a bad workman...

I truly believe that our society would be transformed if we started to take Metaphysics seriously but I see no inclination to do so among academic philosophers and scientists. They'd rather assume their logic and reason is faulty in some way and then they can believe what they like about the world. Then other people look at their wide-ranging guesswork and conclude that Metaphysics is subjective.

As for the idea that Metaphysics is only useful as a way of generating scientific thought-experiments, this view cannot arise where it is properly studied. Metaphysics, as a process of logical analysis, cannot prove what is true but as Aurobindo and Bradley note it is an excellent way of detecting erroneous philosophical views. They share this conclusion because they 'shut up and calculate' and do not reject their results.

I would say that Metaphysics is an objective science that produces trustworthy results which we have no reason to question, and that a study of it reveals the truth about the nature of Reality, Consciousness and Existence.

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    Carnap authored Elimination of Metaphysics Through Logical Analysis of Language, where he argues in particular that "the statements of metaphysics are en­tirely meaningless" and "serve for the expression of the general attitude of a person towards life", but being "a substitute, albeit an inadequate one, for art... through the form of its works it pretends to be something that it is not". I do not believe that Aurobindo and Bradley can agree on his results. – Conifold Jul 21 '18 at 23:25
  • @Conifold I have to admit that although this question boiled in my head for quite some time, I only posted it after reading what Carnap had to say about metaphysics because it sometimes does seem like that "expression of the general attitude of a person towards life". That is what I mean by the subjectivity of metaphysics. – Yechiam Weiss Jul 22 '18 at 10:18
  • @Conifold - Carnap's results are in agreement with those of Aurobindo and Bradley. It's only his interpretation that is different. Carnap could not find one so he concluded that metaphysics is meaningless, as do most of his fellows. This is not a dispute over results but over how they should be interpreted. I will make an edit to clarify this point. It is difficult in metaphysics not to reach the same logical result as Carnap, Bradley, you, me and everyone else since the sums are the same for all of us, but our interpretations will vary. –  Jul 23 '18 at 10:49
  • @YechiamWeiss - Ah. I took 'subjective' here to mean something different. –  Jul 23 '18 at 11:00
  • @PeterJ your reply to Conifold is touching the core of what I'm trying to point here - the "interpretation" that varies, is the subjectivity in metaphysics. Maybe the results are all the same (which completely makes sense to me), but the results aren't what people are interested in with metaphysics, but rather the interpretations, so we can pretty much say that the results on their own are "meaningless" for the topic of metaphysics. – Yechiam Weiss Jul 23 '18 at 12:48
  • @YechiamWeiss - I see what you mean. The logic is the same for everyone but the response to it varies, which makes the response subjective. I'd half-agree. It's like saying that Holocaust studies are subjective because some people deny it took place. I'm not sure it'd be correct to say that metaphysics is subjective in this sense but it's certainly true to say that many people see it this way. I'd say it is not (because there is only one interpretation that works), but in practice it might as well be. People don't like being restricted by inconvenient facts. So I see your point. –  Jul 24 '18 at 08:16
  • @PeterJ to be honest, I don't find the resemblance to the Holocaust, as in that case I think it's pretty obvious that denying it isn't interpreting the results in a certain way, but rather ignoring the results (and although it may be interpreted that way, I'm not saying it with some personal influence). Unless, you'd consider the results themselves (or more precisely, the research itself) to be subjective - but here we're detaching ourselves from the comparison to metaphysics. – Yechiam Weiss Jul 24 '18 at 15:29
  • @YechiamWeiss You are in a better position than me since I am at a loss as to what "results without interpretation" might be or how analysis and logic can produce any results not already fed into them in the premises. This is not how metaphysics, or even physics, was ever created on my observation. I agree with Peirce and others that the process has always been abductive, finding creative premises that explain and unify our experience. And yes, the "attitude of a person towards life", particularly non-epistemic values, might influence the "results", but values need not be subjective. – Conifold Jul 24 '18 at 18:05
  • @Conifold I agree that trying to separate "results" from "interpretation" isn't really possible, but perhaps maybe in some analytical sense. I understand your position, it's certainly one I'm contemplating with, but what I cannot comprehend is how you might explain that "values need not be subjective"? (also, referencing a different conversation of us, what you posit here seems similar to the foundationalist view -- only when the foundation is the person's belief [Polanyi's "Personal Knowledge"], instead of logical analysis; but this is for the chat). – Yechiam Weiss Jul 24 '18 at 20:07
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    @Conifold- It's very straightforward. Metaphysical questions are undecidable, This result needs an interpretation. We might speculate that the world is paradoxical, that human beings cannot think straight or that Buddhist doctrine is true. The result is written in stone but the interpretation is a matter of judgement. I find it odd that you wouldn't know what 'results without interpretation' means but this may be to do with the limitations of my communication skills. –  Jul 25 '18 at 11:13
  • @YechiamWeiss - Belatedly I'll say that in general I agree with your point that the interpretation of metaphysical results are 'subjective', or at least something of a free-for-all. But this changes if those results allow of only one interpretation, or only one that is logically coherent. I believe this is the case in metaphysics,and it appears you don't, and this is probably why we differ on how much subjectivity (in the sense of personal opinion) matters in metaphysics. It seems that you and I are differing on interpretation but not on logical matters. –  Apr 03 '19 at 12:12
  • @PeterJ nice to talk to you again :) in a way, you'd have to meta-metaphysically prove that your results have one and only interpretation to it - which I can't not want to be possible, but I struggle to think how one would go about proving such statement. I'd like to add that personally I'm currently contemplating on a Schellingian-Peircian-Deleuzian position, sort of dynamic-objective metaphysics. I find those 3 philosophers (along with Whitehead and Bergson) as sort of a school of their own. – Yechiam Weiss Apr 03 '19 at 17:13
  • @YechiamWeiss - Proving the statement is not necessary since it is proved by others. notably by Nagarjuna and Bradley, I'd say it is also proved by the failure of philosophers to find another interpretation that works despite many generations of struggle. For this reason I feel there is no need for opinion and guesswork (the OPs 'subjectivity') in metaphysics. I see it as mathematics, just a matter of doing the sums. I can't make the case here this would be my view. . –  Apr 04 '19 at 12:19
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An interesting study may be to compare Berdyaev's work in Eastern Orthodoxy, with Jacques Maritain's "Integral Humanism" (book) and see the Jewish current that runs through them both.

This book here "Nicolas Berdyaev and The New Middle Ages". https://archive.org/stream/nicolasberdyaeva00lampuoft#page/n2

The quote by Berdyaev on the title page of the above book is worth having, in my opinion. A "Return to the Middle Ages", would probably mean a metaphysics as a way of life, hence integral, and the study of metaphysics is right on the cutting edge today, and I think it is a very contemporary subject. Who knows?

Berdyaev on Eastern Orthodoxy, PDF https://static1.squarespace.com/static/54d0df1ee4b036ef1e44b144/t/58efc8a6db29d67bb267dc42/1492109479567/Berdyaev.pdf

In this paper by Berdyaev, the Trinity comes down to earth and this is what Maritain "smuggled", at least to some extent, into Catholicism with his integral humanism.

Now it would be possible, I guess, for all of the above to be "secularized" into a total ethical system, so again we see the connection to Judaism.

Certainly in the Western tradition, metaphysics only comes out of Aristotle (and his heirs). I like to think of this as "true" metaphysics, if only to have a model to compare the others to; really this is just a convenient tool to assist in working with the idea of "metaphysics" in philosophy, that is, to have Aristotle as the original model.

For a more modern treatment of metaphysics, try to find "Metaphysics, a contemporary introduction, by Michael J Loux, Third Edition, which is floating around the internet as a PDF, or on Internet Archive I think.

Also, since I think you are interested in some of the German Idealists, you may want to read this article: "Logic and Metaphysics from Melanchthon to Hegel" by Ricardo Pozzo, in "Approaches to Metaphysics" William Sweet, Ed., Kluwer Academic Publishers 2004, on Internet Archive.

Gordon
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@ Yechiam Weiss- As has been pointed out previously, but here stated a bit differently, without accounting for the participation of the human mind in some aspect of the process, 'objectivity' is not only untenable but impossible and absurd. It is, in fact, not even desirable. To claim that somehow 'observable phenomena' 'reveal' their intrinsic 'truth value' to a 'disinterested' human mind without any capability as an 'agent' marks an impossibility.

The good news is that 'scientific theorists', particularly biologists like Huxley, et al, have recognized the conundrum for quite some time now. [since the mid-1950s]

For resolution on the relationship between Metaphysics and Science see; "The Foundations of Metaphysics in Science" by Errol E Harris.(Muirhead Library of Philosophy, 2004). This work brings the two disciplines into line and lays the groundwork for coordinating the efforts of both disciplines. Regards, Charles M. Saunders

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Yes metaphysics are subjective, i.e. metaphysicians contend with "what is true to metaphysicians" not "what is true." Metaphysics are little more than unjustifiable descriptions, in short: not philosophy. The conclusions of metaphysics are solicitations to agreement, not the advancement of knowledge claims, nor confirmation of hypotheses.

See chapter one from A.J. Ayers "Language, Truth, and Logic" - "The Elimination of Metaphysics"

It is true, however, that although the greater part of metaphysics is merely the embodiment of humdrum errors, there remain a number of metaphysical passages which are the work of genuine mystical feeling; and they may more plausibly be held to have moral or aesthetic value. But. as far as we are concerned, the distinction between the kind of metaphysics that is produced by a philosopher who has been duped by grammar, and the kind that is produced by a mystic who is trying to express the inexpressible, is of no great importance : what is important to us is to realize that even the utterances of the metaphysician who is attempting to expound a vision are literally senseless; so that henceforth we may pursue our philosophical researches with as little regard for them as for the more inglorious kind of metaphysics which comes from a failure to understand the workings of our language.

As the propositions comprising metaphysics are imponderable, i.e., cannot be rendered a truth value, they are epistemically vacuous. As they are epistemically vacuous, no claim to knowledge can be made. As no claim to knowledge can be made, no basis for wisdom can be derived. As philosophy means love of wisdom, and metaphysics is wholly incapable of providing it, metaphysics cannot be philosophy, and this no matter what Wikipedia or junior college philosophy courses may suggest to the contrary.

"Metaphysics" is not a term which either Plato or Aristotle used. It originated with Andronicus of Rhodes (~150CE). Lacking a significantly coherent statement in the beginning of the writings to work with, as would have been customary for a title in his day, Rhodes' organizing principle for the extant works of Aristotle (essentially categorizing a hodgepodge into a collection) was simply that they were placed on the shelf after the books on physics: ta meta ta physika biblia, i.e. "the books that come after the books on physics." Only later was this categorical placeholder naming considered taxonomic and thus began a pernicious history of metaphysicians soliciting agreement with weltanschauung and proferring the hermeneutical as if it were heuristic - all under the banner and misnomer of "philosophy".

This is not to say that metaphysics are entirely without worth, just that they are not philosophy. Furthermore, any subject under the heading of "metaphysics" (whatever the term may be used to mean) is adequately addressed by epistemology (study of knowledge) and ontology (study of existence) and can be analyzed with the tools of logic, rhetoric and reason. Finally, it is worth pointing out that even the urgings of the sly little weaver to agree that the emperor is adorned with fine raiments of gold can be considered "metaphysics."

MmmHmm
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  • Your answer mixes two v different levels @Mr.Kennedy. The second-last para is of great (historical) import "Aristotle did not write metaphysics (as I always imagined)" The rest of the stuff repeating tired tautologies of the logical positivists loses even what little significance it had in the light of the history-correction. After all the LP guys rail against metaphysics because it is "outside of physics" When it turns out that "metaphysics" is just some obscure librarian's marker for organizing Aristotle's books all significance of the LP ends. So please make your stand clear – Rushi Apr 04 '19 at 02:21
  • @rusi your comment confuses my post with whatever might be true to you of logical positivism – MmmHmm Jul 24 '19 at 02:52
  • I see (from your various comnents/answers not just this) that you are committed to LP. I did not know when I made my comment months ago and saw the (for me) new history correction. – Rushi Jul 24 '19 at 04:57
  • @Rusi your comment is typical, rather than contend with the content of the post, the propositional content is nothing more than ad hominem. Good luck with that. – MmmHmm Jul 27 '19 at 16:02
  • Propositional content is clear in my first comment above: main point being that your 2nd last para is way more significant than the rest... for which I upvoted this (otherwise heavily downvoted) answer. My other points were secondary: viz that the other paragraphs only take away from the said para. You can ignore those points or fixate on them ad libitum. – Rushi Jul 28 '19 at 07:08