Science & Metaphysics

1. To understand the relationship between science and metaphysics, we have only to look back to the Greek era to see the sort of combination of the two that infused some portion of scientific thought in the seventeenth century, a period of revival of classical thought in any case.

The Greeks developed both an extensive mythology and a strong metaphysical philosophy. The two are thought to be quite distinct, with mythology seen as irrational and metaphysics as rational, myth as imaginative and metaphysics as scientific. This is the wrong way to make a distinction between the two. G.S. Kirk discusses the extensive argument concerning the idea of a form of mythical thinking which is somehow different from rational, metaphysical thinking. He also notes the number of thinkers who view the difference between these modes of thought, and between myth and metaphysics, in terms that might be seen as degrees of rationality. He cites Andrew Lang to the effect that all myths are a form of primitive science:

That view still has its modern adherents, and a well-known classical scholar wrote as recently as 1969: "True myth is an explanation of some natural process made in a period when such explanations were religious and magical rather than scientific" (Kirk 17).

Kirk rightly points out that there is more than one kind of myth and that such pronouncements as these make it seem as if all myths are alike, but applying the conception specifically to Greek mythology and to Greek metap

Related Essays

Nietzsche's critique of Metaphysics .... Nietzsche's critique of metaphysics calls into consideration the cultural authority of science, a revaluation of morals and ethics that demonstrates their .... (2247 9 )

Nature of Metaphysics .... There have been attempts to give philosophy the trappings of science in order to make metaphysics more acceptable and more valid. .... (1572 6 )

The New Science of Giambattista Vico Giambattista Vico, in his work The New Science of Giambattista Vico, has created a .... and literature which might most fairly be termed "poetic metaphysics" (116). .... (1589 6 )

Thomas Aquinas .... As the highest science, metaphysics has the added task of ordering, defending, and safeguarding all other sciences, speculative and practical. .... (2391 10 )

St Thomas Aquinas .... As the highest science, metaphysics has the added task of ordering, defending, and safeguarding all other sciences, speculative and practical (Eliade 488). .... (2433 10 )

to a fully formed structure of mechanical materialism but instead intermingled with his idealistic and theological believes. Hessen says that the Principia forms a system and a conception of the universe: The basic idea of the "Principia" consists of the conception of the movement of the planets as a consequence of the unity of two forces: one directed towards the sun, and the other that of the original impulse. Newton left his original impulse to God (Hessen 184). The externalist view provides a fuller picture of the relationship of scientific thought to the social movements of the time while at the same time indicating that the ideas expressed will be judged in the long run on a scientific and not an ideological basis. Works Cited Hessen, Boris. The Social and Economic Roots of Newton's "Principia". Kirk, G.S. The Nature of Greek Myths. New York: Penguin, 1974. 2. Gailileo was in many ways anti-Aristotelian, but at the same time he adapted many Aristotelian concepts and methods. He was anti-Aristotelian as he denounced Aristotelian physics, accusing it of pure nominalism. He also adopted the slogan of "the book of nature" counterposed to the books of Aristotle and his commentators, and in this he was agreeing

Category: Science - S