Metaphysics And Transcendence

Metaphysics and Transcendence takes up this story for the future. Arthur Gibson presents a new metaphysics with a genealogy based on counter-intuition and locates counter-intuition and complexity at the foundations of truth. Having devised fresh concepts on the basis of the new frontiers of science and philosophy, the author presents original explanations of transcendence arguing that just as we need revolutionary and original ways of depicting the physical world, so it is with such topics as God, miracles, the resurrection, the source and identity of consciousness and reason itself.

Metaphysics, in its classical sense, is the study of being. But what does it mean, this seemly old-fashioned word, "being"? And how does metaphysics relate to the world of human experience if it is said to go beyond physics? Is "being" something hidden behind the veil of experience? Are we in danger, in attempting to defend the idea of metaphysics, to become Hinterweltler (Nietzsche)? These are relevant questions for anyone who wants to know, today, what we can still learn from the 'old' metaphysics from the Aristotelian tradition, of which Thomas Aquinas was one the most eloquent and insightful defenders. This book offers a philosophical analysis of metaphysics as conceived and practised by Thomas. Its aim is not to present another exposition of the doctrine of Thomistic metaphysics; its focus is on the characteristic movement of metaphysics, going from the world of experience to the divine principle of all being. By a close reading and interpretation of the relevant texts, it seeks to clarify the specific dynamics of the science of metaphysics, as present in the works of Aquinas. In the Aristotelian tradition, metaphysics exhibits a typical onto-theological orientation, as the study of being in general and the study of divine being. Going against a general tendency in the Thomistic tradition to loosen metaphysics as ontology from its theological part, this book presents a fresh and innovative reading which emphasizes the inner unity of metaphysics.

Language, Reality, and Transcendence deals with the later philosophy of Wittgenstein by delving into language, grammar, rule, self, world, culture, and value. Wittgenstein has given a comprehensive philosophy of man and the world and has dealt with the destiny of man by outlining the moral and the spiritual goals of human life. In this work, the nature of Wittgenstein's transcendent metaphysics of man and the ultimate reality has been outlined.

This controversial work discusses a theory of plurallism, claiming that there is not merely a plurality of correct theories and world views, but a corresponding plurality of actual worlds. Plurality penetrates deeper than the linguistic surface or than conceptual or theoretical structure.

Frithjof Schuon (1907-1998), the author of more than 25 books on religion and spirituality, is the foremost representative of the "Perennialist" or "Traditionalist" school of comparative religious thought. This new edition of Logic and Transcendence, his most important philosophical work, is a fully revised translation from the French original and contains: an extensive new appendix of previously unpublished selections from Schuon's letters and other private writings; comprehensive editor's notes by James S. Cutsinger; a new glossary of foreign terms and phrases, and an index. Book jacket.

This author presents new metaphysics with a genealogy based on counter-intuition and locates counter-intuition and complexity at the foundations of truth. This book stimulates future philosophical and religious discussion.