15390
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Metaphysics attempts to give an account of everything, in terms of categories and principles [Simons]
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Full Idea:
Metaphysics, the noblest of philosophic enterprises, is an attempt to give an account of everything. ...Its job is to provide a universal framework (of categories and principles) within which anything whatever can take its place.
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From:
Peter Simons (Whitehead: process and cosmology [2009], 'Speculative')
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A reaction:
Bravo! I take metaphysics to be entirely continuous with science, but operating entirely at the highest level of generality. See Westerhoff on categories, though. The enterprise may not be going too well.
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7083
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Highest reason is aesthetic, and truth and good are subordinate to beauty [Hegel]
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Full Idea:
I am now convinced that the highest act of reason, which embraces all ideas, is an aesthetic act, and that truth and goodness are brothers only in beauty.
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From:
Georg W.F.Hegel (Oldest System Prog. of German Idealism [1796]), quoted by Simon Critchley - Continental Philosophy - V. Short Intro Append
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A reaction:
This seems to be the distinctive value framework of the romantic movement and the nineteenth century, where art is destined to replace religion. However, Plato in the Symposium is an interesting ally. Aim for beauty, and the rest follows?
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