Meditation 53: Practical Metaphysics

On the surface, "practical metaphysics" sounds like a contradiction. Theory is theory, and practice is practice. Metaphysics is what ordinary people think about on the rare occasions when they think about what philosophy is. Metaphysicians are ivory tower types, navel gazers, impractical people whose philosophical speculations are a million miles from paying the rent or taking that next vacation. Metaphysics has to do with what goes beyond all possible observations and bodily experiences. It is about some Absolute Reality that transcends all sensory determinations, or about the absence of any such Absolute Reality, or about the incorrigibility of our ignorance in the face of metaphysical questions.

Paradoxically, as it seems to me, the very abstractness of metaphysics becomes the focus of practices that have immense effects in the world we inhabit.  Today, there is nothing more urgent or practical than choosing a metaphysical position from among the wide field of alternatives. Things that cannot be proved one way or the other, that go beyond scientific explanations, play a pivotal role in the competing ideologies of the world. It is because we are at sea in metaphysics, that each and every theory has its appeal and its drawbacks. 

A practical approach to metaphysics recognizes that our metaphysical beliefs never go beyond the choices we make in regard to them. One chooses a metaphysical position and uses energy to maintain belief in it. However, it is always possible to move to another theory, for none of them are anywhere near as compelling as the theory of gravity, even though we have little idea what gravity actually is.

Kant took this approach by assessing the relative worth of competing metaphysical theories by a practical measurement. In his view, we ought to live, practically speaking, as if God exists, as if humans are morally free, and as if the soul is immortal. However, we cannot prove that God exists, that we are free or possess an immortal soul. These are posits of faith, and Kant is trying to make room for faith by giving a critique of knowledge, showing the limits of rational investigation into the objects and phenomena of a spatio-temporal world  by means of senses experience and detailed observation.

We can disagree with Kant's view. Perhaps it would be better to believe that God does not exist, that we do not possess freedom, and that our souls are mortal. What difference would it make? It makes every difference in the world.  Suddenly, what is ineffable becomes crucial to life and death. People live and die for their metaphysical beliefs, for nearly all religions have faith in a supernatural world of arcane forces and influences. It is what the Enlightenment calls Asuperstition.@ Yet this superstition goes so deep that even a rationalistic philosopher, like Leibniz, believes in miracles and that natural disasters can be a punishment coming from God.

For myself, I will keep on living as if I am free and have real choice, while remaining skeptical about Kant's other two desiderata. However, his main point remains. Reason is able to propose metaphysical possibilities, but is unable to settle questions as to their truth. We have to remind ourselves and everyone else that what we choose in metaphysics has unavoidable practical ramifications in our lives.  In fact, life forces us to make metaphysical choices, so that even to curse all metaphysical positions is itself a metaphysical choice.