Constructing the Metaphysics I

My objective in constructing Veriphysics was always to construct a positive 21st Century philosophy, but it soon became evident that it was necessary to demonstrate the Enlightenment’s most fatal errors before proposing its successor. And, of course, any philosophy worth its salt requires addressing the metaphysics underlying it.

What it is: Let’s be clear about what this initial document is. It is a proposed structure, not a demonstration or a proofs. The proofs live in the papers. A metaphysics is not the sort of thing that admits proof; it is proposed in order to be tested, extended, and corrected.

Who it is for: The metaphysics of Veriphysics is intended for a reader arriving with no knowledge of the Enlightenment as a live opponent, no knowledge of what was deemed orthodox when it was written, and no ability to ask what a specific term meant. Every definition must be stated rather than assumed. Every departure from the various major traditions, namely, Aristotelian, Thomistic, and Enlightement, must be marked as a departure.

What it is not: This is not a refutation. A polemical work follows its target’s structure; this only follows its own. Where a position exists only as the negation of an error, it is restated positively or it is abandoned.

PART 0: DEFINITIONS

What must be established before the first substantive claim.

Aristotle used one word for a genus and a species without marking which was primary, and the result was equivocation that looked like precision. The remedy is one that he subsequently provided in a different work: designate the primary bearer and derive the rest by explicit relation.

Truth. Being as unconcealed. Aletheia. Singular, no plural, no degrees, no partiality. The primary bearer. “Truth is reality” survives verbatim. Aka T.

Apprehension. What a finite mind grasps of Truth. Partial, perspectival, admits degrees. This is the register the first principles govern.

• Katalepsis names the act: a finite mind gets hold of something real. The grasp is genuine, which is the anti-Kantian claim.

• Metalepsis names the state of what is held: an attempted participation in Truth rather than a realization of it. Partial by nature or by deficiency of effort.

Claim. An articulated apprehension: propositional, communicable, checkable. Bears accuracy. What Logic, Math, and Empirical data filter. Where the not-truth operates.

Formal T. The set of accurate claims as defined in the mathematical proof. Register 3, not register 1. Already in print and accommodated rather than revised.

Restatements required: “all truths are partial” becomes “all apprehension is partial.” “The not-truth is easier to establish than the truth” becomes a claim about claims.

The actual is what is borne somewhere in the timeline. The merely possible is what is borne nowhere. Potentiality is not real. Reality is not indexed to the present.

Acquisition. How content is obtained. By method, in ordinary inquiry.

Selection. Which part of the truth is obtained. By perspective, in ordinary inquiry.

Formation. The shape in which content lands in a finite mind. By the capacity of the knower, always.

A mode of being is how a thing exists. A mode of access is how a mind comes into contact with what exists. The 2021 list of five mixes them and is here split into two lists. Nothing exists testimonially.

God knows by His own will. Not a quantity of knowledge but a mode of knowing. Distinguished at the outset from open theism: self-limitation, not limitation.

Directedness is an actual present property of a thing ordered toward an end. Direction is the act of an agent imposing it. A thing may be directed without being directed by anything.