Thomas Lund, age 14, of Portland, Ore., for his question:
WHAT IS METAPHYSICS?
Metaphysics is the name given to research about the eternal, universal nature of things. The natural scientist deals with the kinds of fundamental and basic properties that make up matter while the metaphysician, or philosopher who deals with metaphysics, studies the basic kinds of things and properties that make up the entire universe or cosmos.
Two branches make up metaphysics: ontology and cosmology.
Ontology deals with questions about the ultimate nature of things. It asks whether a thing is one or many, or of what kind.
Cosmology considers the type of organization of the world. If all things are determined, cosmology seeks to find out how, or by what method. If they are not, cosmology then tries to find out what causes the breakdown of determinism.
Cosmology also seeks to discover whether things are arranged in some ascending order or hierarchy. If they are, it then tries to discover the top or apex of that hierarchy, and how things ascend to various levels.
One doctrine of metaphysics is idealism. Idealism asserts that mind or spirit is in some sense basic to everything that exists. Most religions are based on idealistic ontologies.
The metaphysical doctrine of absolute idealism asserts that there is only one universal spirit, of which all things are manifestations. Supernaturalism, a form of idealism, believes in the existence of something (God) beyond nature. Naturalism, opposed to supernaturalism, insists that there is only nature and that all things are to be explained in materialistic or scientific terms.
Many of the doctrines differ on the nature of change. Some have maintained that change is unreal. Others have tried to describe the way in which things have changed and do change. Dialectics explains change as the result of conflict between opposites.
A doctrine of metaphysics is evolution, which explains change as the result of a development out of a given stage into something new. This cause may be either an internal drive or external compulsion.
Creation explains change as the result of a creative act. This act may be either of God or of some principle of creativity inherent in the universe, such as love.
Questions that metaphysicians raise cannot be answered by experimental observation in a laboratory. Metaphysics tries to justify its conclusions either by generalizing from the natural sciences or by inferring, or drawing conclusions, from the process of knowing to the nature of things known.
The laboratory method of solving questions assumes that nature is such that it can be observed in a laboratory.
Some metaphysicians have insisted that there is a process of knowing that reveals to us the structure of things in general, or knowledge by acquaintance or intuition.