Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site spar.UUCP
Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!bellcore!decvax!decwrl!spar!ellis
From: ellis@spar.UUCP (Michael Ellis)
Newsgroups: net.sci,net.philosophy,net.nlang
Subject: Re: Metaphysicians
Message-ID: <143@spar.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 13-Mar-86 18:09:07 EST
Article-I.D.: spar.143
Posted: Thu Mar 13 18:09:07 1986
Date-Received: Sat, 15-Mar-86 20:28:51 EST
References: <899@decwrl.DEC.COM> <402@aoa.UUCP> <192@ulowell.UUCP>
Reply-To: ellis@spar.UUCP (Michael Ellis)
Organization: Schlumberger Artificial Research, CA
Lines: 70
Xref: watmath net.sci:588 net.philosophy:4450 net.nlang:4290

>I've broadened the newsgroups to include net.nlang, and pose the
>question as a word-derivation question to the nlinguists at large.

    Metaphysics originally meant `the book following Aristotle's Physics'.
    In Greek, the prefix "meta-" meant {after, along with, through},
    often conveying the notion of change or transformation.

>When did "metaphysics" aquire the meaning "occultism" (rather
>than the more proper meaning of "the study of the nature of
>being and reality")..
>But... I looked up metaphysics in the some dictionaries.  I find that
>"metaphysical" can mean "supernatural" in all of them.  And in one, an
>archaic meaning of "metaphysics" meaning "occultism" was listed.
>
>I wonder if what happened was that the wave of occultism in England in
>the late 1800s and early 1900s appropriated the word.  The dictionary
>that lists the archaic meaning is the oldest one (published in the 40s,
>I think).  The newer ones don't mention it, so this meaning may have
>been going out about then. -- Wayne Throope

     I don't think the meaning of `metaphysics' has changed much since
     the time when it meant `the study of the nature of being and reality'.

     What has changed is the fossilization of our so-called `scientific' society,
     which largely brands anything not fitting into its 19th century cause
     and effect worldview as incomprehensible, even heretical. To such
     folk, `What Is' has been fixed for all time by the scientific method;
     consequently, if metaphysics is not ordinary science, then it must be
     antiscience, and therefore no better from occultism.

     Science, having defeated Religion, is now the ultimate arbiter of such
     matters. Like those in times past brainwashed by Religion, the modern
     day Scientismists CANNOT EVEN THINK incorrect thoughts, except in
     terms of extreme charicatures: "If you shirk logical analysis and
     verifiable evidence, you will become like Jerry Falwell! People like
     you persecuted Galileo!"
     
     Does spirit `exist'? Does virtue `exist'? How about universals? Or
     mind? Whatever can `ethics' mean? From the conventional scientific view,
     these are nonsense questions. They are neither verifiable nor
     falsifiable in any traditional scientific sense. Obviously, such
     questions are the result of delusion!

     Metaphysics became taboo during the era of Logical Positivism. The
     logical positivists, you see, thought they had settled metaphysical
     questions for all time. If something could not be demonstrated to exist
     using deductive reason and a empirical method, it was nonsense.

     There were many reasons logical positivism faded away. First, its
     advocates had to admit that ethics was as much idle metaphysics as
     theology. Good science, maybe, but not very enlightening philosophy.
     Secondly, the beloved verifiability principle itself was not
     verifiable, and thus, metaphysical. 
     
     And just how do we decide which entities and axioms are to be accepted
     as the foundations for reasoning and observation? Deciding what such
     critical matters might be IS metaphysics.

     Ultimately, the sciences themselves broke into many factions differing
     in the extreme concerning metaphysical issues, even (especially?)
     within specialized fields (eg: QM). Physicists themselves, ironically
     enough, resurrected metaphysics!!
   
     Nonetheless, the vast majority of scientific educators still seem to be
     caught in a logical positivist stranglehold; `metaphysics' remains a
     term of derision to the enginerd mentality ignorant of all mathematics,
     physics, or philosophy beyond that required to bring home a good
     salary. 

-michael