In every age, human beings try to order their thinking about the question, what is ultimately
real?
How do we explain what the world consists of?
You might say, this is a question about what are the deep down causes of things.
And the investigation is traditionally called, metaphysics.
It's an odd title, but it's not a difficult idea to understand. Metaphysics is just the
study of the science of being, of that which exists, in so far as it exists.
You might say that metaphysics is a structured way of thinking about the most fundamental
explanations of the world, that we encounter.
When Aquinas defines metaphysics, he says that its object of study is the causes of
existence in things.
Why do things exist? In metaphysics we consider the beings of this world, their natures,
their properties, material constitution, the changes they're submitted to, their contingency,
their relations that obtain within and among them, and we consider why various things exist
from every angle.
Do you and I exist because of our material bodies?
Or do we exist because we have living souls?
Do we exist because we were begotten by our parents?
Or do we exist due to the dependence we have on the larger physical cosmos?
Or do we exist because of the creation of God's sustaining all things and being?
Or is it due to all of the above, but in a given order?
And if so, how do we order those explanations?
That gives you an idea of the overview.
But what about the basic starting points?
When beginning to consider what being is, St. Thomas identifies certain fundamental
distinctions we should make.
First, we can discern the differences that obtain between different kinds of natural
substances around us.
How are they distinguished from one another?
A human being, for example, is very different from a kangaroo.
We distinguish them by their different properties, which we can analyze philosophically.
Both are animals and mammals, and have complex sense organs.
So they're living things, they're sentient living things, and they have all kinds of
mobile properties that are similar.
But human beings are rational animals who think, make decisions, use language and tools,
while kangaroos do not do any of those things.
Now, other properties they do sort of share but also are distinguished by just at the
level of animality.
So for example, kangaroos nurture their young in a pouch after birth, but human beings do
not.
So these kinds of properties reveal characteristics of the various natures of things, and they
tell us something about what those things are, their essences, and therefore why they
exist, or how they exist.
This is a first kind of way of proceeding into metaphysics.
We can study the distinctions of the various substances we encounter, and their properties
philosophically.
But having distinguished substances, we can then go on to consider what unites them, or
what they all have in common.
What is it that's properly basic or common to all kinds of beings no matter how different
they are?
We might talk about dimensions of being that are common to human beings, kangaroos, trees,
stars, stones, and artifacts.
So here's where we enter into the study of what Aquinas calls the transcendentals, being
unity, truth, goodness, and beauty.
Everything that exists has being in some way, and is unified, true, or intelligible, good
and thus desirable or pleasing, and beautiful.
It has a certain kind of splendor or harmony to it.
At this point we can begin asking more ultimate questions. Is this world of interdependent
beings that we experience one reality or multiple realities that form a kind of unity?
Is the cosmos that exists around us and the things that are in it good in some objective
sense?
And if so, are there degrees and kinds of goodness in the things around us?
And if so, what is evil and how do we explain the existence of evil?
Meanwhile, what is beauty and is it merely subjective, or are the things of this world
truly beautiful due to the harmonies internal to them, and the order within them?
Does the world of finite interdependent beings ultimately depend upon a primary cause we
call God, who gives being to all things?
And if so, how do being and unity, goodness, and beauty, and truth, all relate back to
God as the cause of everything that exists?
For Aquinas, metaphysicians endeavor to study the things of this world by an honest and
critical appraisal.
And in so doing, they're led to consider reality in relation to God as the cause of existence
for everything that is.
When you've begun thinking about the kinds of questions I've just raised, you're doing metaphysics,
you've arrived, or you've started.
And St. Thomas is a great guide for this kind of study.
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