What Is Metaphysics?

Quintessential Metaphysics - 0 - Introduction

This article is intended to serve as an introductory examination of the topic of Quintessential Metaphysics, to which we intend to dedicate a studious analysis in the form of a monographical series, in which this article will be the first of many. The purpose of the series is to articulate a principial, universal, and non-systematized metaphysical doctrine through a disciplined sequence of examinations which each address a particular fundamental component of the structure and operation of Reality. Its objective is to isolate and clarify the foundational principles, formulas, verities, and logical procedures by which Reality itself is configured, and from which it proceeds, without recourse to cultural, religious, or linguistic particularities, except insofar as they assist in articulating what is universally inferable. The intent is to interface with the topic of metaphysics in its proper status as the most universal and necessary foundation for the understanding of all things, and to offer a vocabulary and method of engagement that enables the reader to operate on the semantic basis. This study is to provide a foundation for all further legitimate metaphysical, theological, doctrinal, and practical expression and speculation, measuring their truth and propriety by their degree of conformity to the Quintessential Metaphysical design. From the outset, it is necessary to make some semantic clarifications in order to unambiguously define the subject matter and the parameters of the study.

The term "metaphysics" can most properly be defined as "the principial and paradigmatic design of Reality, the domain of Reality in which that principial design exists in a pure state, and the principial, formulaic, and logical verities and processes by which Reality operates"; the term itself can be used to refer either to one particular component of this definition in isolation, or to all of them in singularity; to an assessment of any of those components; or to the effect brought about by any of those components. Metaphysics denotes a universal Reality, and the universal verities and formulas by which Reality is influenced and determined at every level; it is that which is universally and necessarily Real, configuring all subsequent principial processes, formulations, and operations, and informing all proper articulations of Truth and Knowledge. In the most proper sense, metaphysics signifies a universal doctrine inherent to Reality, in which all things are incorporated and provided a proper standard.

Throughout the history of philosophical discourse, however, this term has adopted a rather large number of subsidiary definitions, and has likewise been employed to denote a number of domains of philosophical consideration, all of which can be more accurately described through the use of more precise and particular terminology. In the most recent, and the most limited and inaccurate, applications, the term "metaphysics" has been used to distinguish the nature, conditions, and instances of intangible, subliminal, and supra-corporeal phenomena, disassociating the term from a universal doctrine, and associating it with temporal operations of invisible forces. In a more accurate, and yet still limited, application, in which the association with doctrine is still somewhat preserved, if in a reduced form, the term has historically been applied to theological considerations associated with particular religious formalisms, attempting to understand the nature of Reality through associating expressive symbols and designatory natures with what can more accurately be identified as abstract and formulaic principles. Both of these applications condition the term to a certain relativity, and narrow its domain of consideration to a domain of symbology or perpetual activity; both are examinations either of a particular and instantiated result of a more fundamental or originating principle, or of a particular substantial characterization of a more removed, essential, and principial process. By use of the word "Quintessential", what is distinguished is "the most universal state of that which is still discernible in conceptualization", and, thus, by affixing this word as a preliminary descriptor to that of "metaphysics", what is intended to be examined is the highest and most universal definition and application of the term "metaphysics", unlimited in its domain of consideration, and unrestricted, as much as possible, from any particular symbolic or linguistic formalism. Quintessential Metaphysics is, thus, metaphysics in its quintessential state, the pre-formatted source and reference of all which has been historically defined under the banner of the term "metaphysics", prior to any interpretation, refinement, or expression, which is to say that every such proper metaphysical doctrine is reducible, in its principial consistency, to the format of Quintessential Metaphysics.

Quintessential Metaphysics is the semantic and structural origin of all legitimate metaphysical articulation, and, due to its universality, is therefore logically and procedurally prior to all intelligible formulations, systematizations, and conceptualizations of metaphysics. It is both invariable in its principial formulas and universal verities, and variable by the indefinite ways in which these formulas and verities may be conditioned and expressed. It is impossible to truly examine metaphysics in its quintessential mode, as any examination at all requires symbolic and linguistic expression; therefore, any articulation of metaphysics at all is not Quintessential Metaphysics itself, but a particularized configuration of metaphysics limited to the extent of whatever format by which it is made intelligible. Quintessential Metaphysics itself is totally ineffable; it cannot be condensed nor expressed in any manner by which it will be wholly considered, and even the most accurate consideration is limited to the position of the highest approximation - likewise, no particular metaphysical formulation, or further principial typification, is exhaustive of the totality of its subject matter, which always exceeds the limitations of such expressions. Such a clarification is necessary in order to conduct a study on that which cannot be truly articulated in its totality. Therefore, to the best of our abilities, the use of the term "metaphysics" will be limited to the unlimited, inasmuch as it is applicable to some basic considerations: 1) the paradigmatic design and structure of Reality itself; 2) the domain of Reality in which that design exists in a pure, unactualized¹, and undifferentiated state; 3) the way in which that design procedurally influences Reality at every level - namely, the principial, formulaic, and logical processes that operate and influence Reality.

It is necessary, therefore, to distinguish between Quintessential Metaphysics as the highest and most universal format of metaphysics itself, and Quintessential Metaphysics as the method of assessment and articulation of that highest format of metaphysics. Defined properly, the study of Quintessential Metaphysics is the study of the paradigmatic design and structure of the totality of Reality, and the basic principles, formulas, and processes by which Reality operates, through the direct assessment thereof, prior to, and without use of, any symbolic interpretation, and limited to only the most necessary and direct forms of linguistic expression. Such a study is necessary to conduct in isolation, independent from the context of any formatted and systematized formalism or orthodoxical configuration. The Quintessential Metaphysics methodology in regards to linguistic expression must be understood as the linguistic distillation of metaphysical principles to their most immediate and necessary articulation, prior to - and not as - any form of systematization whatsoever. Therefore, the terms which become commonly employed through use of this method are not those which establish or function within a system, but those which function prior to systematization - they are terms which are demonstrated as that which is universally recognizable, with meanings which are revealed immediately once their constituent components are assessed, and which are inferable and intelligible regardless of a relational understanding or historical literacy. The terminological formula of the Quintessential Metaphysics approach is to articulate metaphysics in terms which require no preliminary semantic understanding, and for which no alternative term can be used with greater precision, universality, or succinctness. In this regard, this metaphysical terminology amounts to a "quintessential vocabulary", insofar as the terms employed function at the highest register, and cannot undergo any further reduction, and of which any explanation or further definition is only a clarification of that which is already self-evident or inferable by the term itself. Therefore, the Quintessential Metaphysics approach does not "establish" anything new; it rather identifies and recognizes notions which inhere in Reality itself, revealing them through principial directness.

This study is very closely related to the study of ontology - that is, to the nature of "Being", itself - and the position of beings in a principial, logical, and sequential hierarchy, beginning with a most fundamental and incorporative Unicity, and concluding in an indefinite relative numerosity. To examine Quintessential Metaphysics is to abstractify Reality itself to a series of principles, and formulaic and mathematical processes, and to examine Reality at this most fundamental level; therefore, to understand Quintessential Metaphysics is to understand Reality in terms of principial formulaic mathematics, and not in terms of designatory natures or of symbolism. Designatory natures and symbols themselves are understood as the results of the principial and paradigmatic formulaic and mathematical processes that operate at the most fundamental level.

Quintessential Metaphysics, most properly denoted by the definition provided at the outset of the current work, is the principial, essential, universal, and archetypal configuring formula for the totality of Reality itself; therefore, Reality itself is paradigmatically formatted, and perpetually operates, according to the design of Quintessential Metaphysics. This formula, by which Reality is produced, is analogously replicated and reflected at every ontological degree, from the most universal to the most particular, reiterating this foundational configuration according to every individual mode, capacity, and station; therefore, Reality is a consistent and coherent procession of configurations conforming to this single, principial design, as opposed to a composition of disunited autonomous entities. Accordingly, Quintessential Metaphysics is the highest and most universal referent for all things - regardless of scale or domain - and the highest standard by which propriety, legitimacy, and intelligibility is assessed; the ontological and archetypal value of all things is directly proportional to their conformity to this principial design; as such, any philosophical, doctrinal, or practical orientation, predisposition, or activity not derived from, aligned with, or reflective of, this formulaic configuration is lacking in the requisite correspondence to the inherent order of Reality, and therefore cannot be considered proper by a metaphysical or ontological standard. As Reality itself emerges from and subsists by and within this design, all knowledge and operation must likewise be structured in accordance with its order.

Quintessential Metaphysics - as the essential and semantic basis of all legitimate metaphysical configurations, and due to its logical priority to all systematizations - produces and incorporates all proper metaphysical orthodoxies and systems, and serves as their principial referent, insofar as such configurations formulate metaphysics into an accurate and appropriate format. Quintessential Metaphysics is the highest Doctrine, from which all properly articulated doctrines proceed, and according to which all activities are measured and assessed; therefore, all such systems are contingent upon Quintessential Metaphysics, and are therefore situated equilaterally at the subordinate level of formulation and particularity. Therefore, the metaphysical validity of any such orthodoxical and doctrinal system is determined by the degree of its conformity to the highest Doctrine of Quintessential Metaphysics, and not to its degree of compatibility with other such metaphysical systems; the various doctrinal contradictions between the individual metaphysical systems, therefore, do not occur at the quintessential level, and occur only after metaphysics has been conditioned to a certain configuration. Quintessential Metaphysics precedes the differentiated formulations that give rise to doctrinal divergence, and therefore does not contain contradiction within itself; thus, all such contradictions occur not on the semantic basis, but on the interpretory basis. This applies also to the linguistic basis by which Quintessential Metahphysics is to be discussed in this study, as such a study itself is an interpretation and articulation of the ineffable formulaic Doctrine from a conditioned and localized position; we intend to remain as universal as possible with our language, however, even in doing so, certain aphoristic contradictions are inevitable, and, as such, every aphorism itself must be assessed in isolation and according to its own individual conformity with Quintessential Metaphysics, and not with its conformity with other such derivative aphorisms.

What will follow in the subsequent sections is a series of focused analyses on the particular ways in which Quintessential Metaphysics procedurally informs Reality, and the fundamental laws by which Reality operates as a result of its metaphysical component. It is entirely impossible to conduct a truly exhaustive study, as particularity itself results in an indefinitude of individuation; thus our examination will remain limited to the universal formula, the universal ontological design, and the maxims applicable to the totality of Reality, with formulaic suggestions as to how such things correspond to every individuation, such that the reader is able to ascertain this adaptive methodology and apply it to their own further research. In this regard, it becomes necessary to consider the implications of such a study: that the inquiry into Quintessential Metaphysics is not merely theoretical or contemplative, but necessarily transformative, requiring a reorientation of one’s entire method of thought and understanding. It is not a discipline one can engage from a distance, nor one whose truths can be received secondhand. It requires the cultivation of a principial awareness capable of discerning the formulaic underpinnings of all things, and the capacity to differentiate that which proceeds from the universal order from that which arises from derivative or arbitrary construction.

Certain terms will be established on the basis of the aforementioned terminological practice of employing terms that apply on the semantic dimension and possess self-evident definitions, but we must take care again to ensure that this is not misunderstood as a systematization of such terms, but an exercise in consistent principial directness and terminological clarity. We must therefore continuously reaffirm that our study remains an approximation, limited by the form of its articulation, and that even the most refined and principled expression remains secondary to the subject it seeks to unveil. The terminology employed, while distilled to its most essential and universal function, serves only as a means to approach a reality that is antecedent to the use of language and independent from all symbolic formulation. The language of Quintessential Metaphysics is thus never authoritative in itself, but only to the extent that it accurately and immediately points to the unconditioned authoritative realities it denotes.

The purpose of this monographical series is, therefore, not to present a "newly founded" closed system or theoretical construction, but to identify the structural and principial components of Reality as they are, and to present them in their most essential form. This is done for the sake of providing intellectual and ontological clarity, and a proper foundation for any and all further philosophical, theological, or scientific inquiry. Future entries in this series will proceed by methodical clarification and progressive delineation of the principles, formulas, and ontological sequences that constitute the configuration of Reality itself, beginning with the most universal and incorporative, and proceeding through successive logical distinctions without departing from the foundational unity. Each principle will be examined in its universal character and assessed for its operational role within the totality of the metaphysical structure, always with reference to the ineffable whole from which all particularity is derived.

1. We must take special care here to not use the term "potential" for what is truly meant by "unactualized", as this design, by its very existence, is always at least partially actualized, and yet, through its infinite character, and the infinite perpetuity of the symbolic domain, is never actualized in full.