What if we could know SOMETHING about EVERYTHING?

But this isn't a what-if question. We can. How? By studying metaphysics.

For the benefit of those beginners in philosophy who truly love and wish to attain wisdom, we will be providing, over the next few weeks, a summary of the principle tenets of the first philosophy—that is, the metaphysics—that we subscribe to.

But why metaphysics?

As we have mentioned in our introductory, this blog is dedicated to those who love and strive for wisdom. Since metaphysics takes as its subject-matter all things that are insofar as they are, it is an inquiry into what it is to be, that is, it is an investigation into the very order of being. Now, given that, as the Philosopher said, it is the mark of the wise man to order (sapientis est ordinare), then an inquiry into the order of all things that are (omnia entia) is apprehending order most universally. As such, the man who knows his metaphysics has knowledge of the order of everything, which, in a way, makes metaphysics seem like the most powerful science. On the other hand, however, metaphysics tells us little of the specifics of the beings under inspection; it restricts itself to treating being as being, and, as a result, does not inform anything of particulars. The Philosopher makes the case in the first book of the Metaphysics, however, that the intellect can only know universals anyway; for this reason he classes someone who knows more, even if generally, over and above those who know less, but know things more specifically. Whether the Philosopher’s account of wisdom is valid we will examine later; for now, our focus is introducing the reader to metaphysics. But before this, a word must be said of the metaphysical system chosen for exposition.

There are, naturally, as in any branch of philosophy, contending schools of metaphysicians. If the reader is serious about his commitment to philosophy, it is worth his time to familiarize himself with them. At the same time, however, a reader unfamiliar with any of the principles of metaphysics would find it immensely difficult even to approach those debates; metaphysics has a very technical language of its own, and, although the terms used therein may appear familiar, their meanings are usually much more restricted than what they usually mean to the layperson. Now, each contending school has its own terminological variations; yet, nearly all schools are anchored in the same metaphysical tradition, or, even if they have departed from it, almost always make explicit reference to it and frequently borrow terms from it. This is the tradition that started with Aristotle. He is the one we frequently reference as “the Philosopher,” not simply out of admiration, but because the title is most appropriately his, since he was the first to treat the question of being qua being. For this reason, the bulk of the metaphysics we will be exposing is, quite candidly, Aristotelian.

Welcome

This is a blog dedicated to all the lovers of wisdom (and of Chivas Regal).

Wisdom is the ultimate perfection of the intellect, which is a faculty characteristic of man alone among animals (nota bene: we do not consider, as of yet, the question of other intelligences, such as angels or extraterrestrials, but we will address this in the future). Given that the intellect is the highest of human faculties, since the objects that come under its inspection are eternal, incorruptible, and universal, so is wisdom the highest and most complete of human virtues. Now, if human happiness is, indeed, as the Philosopher, Aristotle, says in the first book of the Nicomachean Ethics, to live in accordance with the most complete of our characteristic virtues, then happiness is only achieved through possessing wisdom. It is especially through the intellect that man knows the order of things; for whereas the senses deal with particulars, it is proper that the intellect know universals, and, in so abstracting, that it be able to understand the order of one thing to another. It is for this reason that the Philosopher said in the first book of the Metaphysics that it is the mark of the wise man to order (or, as is widely cited from the Latin Moerbeke translation, sapientis est ordinare), wherefore this blog is thus titled.

Wisdom being, thus, fundamental to human happiness, the man who loves and seeks wisdom is also the man who has the best chance of attaining happiness. This man is most truly and appropriately called a philosopher, and what he practices, philosophy. Here it should be noted that, though there are some today who give themselves the title of "philosopher" simply because they seek to clarify what most men already know and take for granted from experience, their program differs immensely from that of the philosopher in the primary sense of the word. The philosopher in this sense is above all else a lover of wisdom, as the Greek φιλόσοφος indicates; he strives to perfect the intellect to the highest, by trying to understand the order of everything that is. This is certainly not the enterprise of the "philosopher" in the modern, soloepcistic sense of the word, who, even if he were to attempt anything of the kind, would only do it incidentally, not truly as the substance of his "philosophic" project. This here blog is a response to how the men of this sort construe philosophy; it seeks to return to the tradition of a systematic understanding of the order of everything that is, for the express purpose of helping those who want to attain wisdom and happiness.

Now, as wisdom transcends national boundaries, so will this blog transcend linguistic ones; though most of the texts published herein are in the current lingua franca -- or, more appropriately, lingua anglica -- there will also be articles in Portuguese, Italian and Latin, as strikes our fancy, or proves necessary.

It may be noted that we often cite a few authorities by name and work. This is not in an endeavor to make this blog any the less philosophic, as it is unfitting that philosophy should proceed not by argument but by an appeal to authority; we do this, rather, that it may spare us the task of uselessly recapitulating all the work already achieved by many of the "greats" of the field. Among these we class especially: Aristotle, whom we often call, as he deserves and the tradition instructs us to do, the Philosopher; Saint Thomas Aquinas, the ablest of commentators and expositors of Aristotle, who was also an immensely original philosopher in his own right, serenely inspired by intelligences higher than ours, whence his epithet, the Angelic Doctor; and others, ancient, mediaeval and modern, discriminated not based on the times in which they wrote, but instead on the substance of their contributions to a systematic understanding of the order of the everything that is.

Finally, it must be noted that we write guided by the convictions of the Faith (i.e. the Catholic faith), but buttressed by the strength of reason. As a disclaimer, we do not, as Anselm says in the Proslogium, seek to understand the world that we may more easily adhere to the Faith, that is, that we may believe in its tenets; rather, we first adhere to the Faith, so that we may, only after, understand (or, to paraphrase Anselm, credimus ut intelligamus). This disclaimer is, at the same time, an appeal to the Holy Ghost, that He may illumine our enterprise to understand the order of things as sprung through, with, and in, the Word.