A Relational Metaphysic

C. S. Peirce's indictment that "the chief cause of [metaphysics'] backward condition is that its leading professors have been theo­ (Collected Papers 6:3) falls heavily at my door. For it logians" was out of reflection upon religious experience and its meaning that the present relational metaphysic was conceived. My hope, however, is that its scope is sufficiently wider than its theological origins to justify its appearance as a work in philosophy. Having been nurtured in existential philosophy and having reached some measure of maturity with the wise counsel of Professor Dr. Fritz Buri, of Basel, I came to feel that theology as a modern discipline had reached an impasse owing to its overextended commitments to a subject-object paradigm of thought. Even those theologians who despaired of these ties seemed unable to find an independent alternative idiom for their ideas. A second tension in my thinking resulted from the inordinate neglect by theologians of the natural world. Also, my natural interest in physical understanding seemed unfulfilled within the narrow confines of theology, even of philosophical theology as then practiced. As I turned decisively toward the study of modern physics, and especially of cosmology, a new world seemed to open up to me. After extensive study with prominent astronomers and physicists, it began to dawn on me that the new physics has devised conceptual paradigms of thought which could be generalized into a metaphysical system of universal interest.

Contenu

One: A New Paradigm in Physics and Metaphysics.- to Part One.- I. The Subject-Object Paradigm and its Debt to Classical Physics.- A. Newton versus Leibniz: Physics and Philosophy in the Seventeenth Century.- 1. Newton's "Laws".- 2. Absolute Time and Space.- 3. Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz.- B. Kant's Critical Philosophy and Its Roots in Physics.- 1. Kant's Pre-critical Philosophy.- 2. Kant's Critical Philosophy.- C. The Newtonian Era in Science and Philosophy.- II. The Emergence of a Relational Paradigm in Modern Physics and Philosophy.- A. The Collapse of the Newtonian World and Its Paradigm.- B. The Emergence of a Relational Paradigm.- 1. In Modern Physics.- a. Special and General Relativity.- b. Quantum Theory.- 2. In Modern Metaphysics.- a. Alfred North Whitehead: His Physics and Metaphysics.- i. The Mathematical-Physical Foundations.- ii. Whitehead's Metaphysical Vision.- b. Systems Philosophy.- i. General Systems Theory: von Bertalanffy.- ii. A Systems Metaphysic: Laszlo.- (a) Fundamentals.- (b) Universe as Systems Matrix.- Conclusion to Part One.- Two: Foundations of a Relational Metaphysic.- to Part Two.- III. A Relational Axiom: The Doctrine of Universal Internality.- A. The Modern Debate on Internal versus External Relations.- 1. F.H. Bradley: "All Relations Are Internal".- 2. Bertrand Russell: "All Relations Are External".- 3. G.E. Moore: "Some Relations Are Internal, Some External".- 4. An Interlude: A.C. Ewing.- B. Contemporary Options.- 1. Charles Hartshorne: "A Logic of Ultimate Contrasts".- 2. Brand Blanshard: "The Coherent World".- C. A Relational Axiom: The Thesis of Universal Internality.- IV. A Step "Beyond": Relation is Fundamental.- A. Relational Ontology in statu nascendi.- 1. Ludwig Feuerbach.- 2. Martin Buber's Ontology of "das Zwischen".- 3. Syed A.R. Zaidi: "Towards a Relational Metaphysics".- B. A Relational Metaphysic.- 1. The Law of a Relational Metaphysic.- 2. Fundamental Tenets of a Relational Metaphysic.- a. The Relational Paradigm: Relations and Perspects.- i. Relations are fundamental.- ii. The terms of relations, i.e. the "relata," are derivatives of experience which, because they arise from bi-perspectival viewing, are called "Perspects".- b. The Hierarchy of Relations and Their Perspects.- i. Simple Relations and Their Bi-Perspects: A Paradigm for a Relational Ontology.- ii. Composites of Relations and Their Compound Perspects.- (a) Composites of Relations.- (b) Compound Perspects.- (1) The Subject Self.- (2) Object-Things.- (3) Object-Selves.- iii. The Totality of Relations and Their Omni-Perspects.- (a) The Totality of Relations.- (b) The Omni-Perspects: GOD and WORLD.- (1) The Ingressive Omni-Perspect: GOD.- (2) The Effective Omni-Perspect: WORLD.- V. Fundamentals and Pseudo-Fundamentals.- A. The Phenomenological Disclosure of Fundamentals.- B. The Genesis of Pseudo-Fundamentals (i.e Derivatives).- 1. The Rational Objectivation of Myth.- 2. The Visual Bias.- 3. Epistemological Bifurcation.- Conclusion to Part Two.- Notes.- Name Index.