Aristotle said that all men desire to know. We regularly ask questions about the world around us. These questions include questions about emotions, human nature, knowledge, ethics, politics, religion, history, and free will, just to name a few. It is clear then, that we find value in the sheer gaining of knowledge. We understand that knowledge is valuable for it’s own sake and for the sake of achieving some other end.
In our search for knowledge we are confronted with problems, puzzles, and difficulties. When confronted, we often ask ourselves questions that help us solve these problems. For example, when confronted with the question of the ethical status of abortion, we often step back and ask fundamental questions that are related to the topic at hand. We may evaluate whether or not there are such things as objective morals. We may look at whether or not persons have intrinsic value. We may also look at whether or not the person in question is a human being. Ultimately, however, all of these questions rely on our metaphysical position.
Metaphysics is also necessary as a proper support for the sciences. All people, including scientists, have some notion of what it is to be real. These ideas carry over into all fields of study. A psychologist may conclude that people should be treated as objects because he has a metaphysical commitment to some form of materialism. The psychologist, knowingly or unknowingly has worked out his metaphysics into his psychology.
The physicist may conclude that subatomic particles “pop” out of existence and then “pop” back into existence. This conclusion is often arrived at without the physicist realizing that he has just entered the realm of metaphysics. When the particle ceases to exist and comes back into existence in another place, the metaphysician immediately asks about the identity of that particle: a question physicists may not be inclined to ask. However, the question of the identity of the particle is certainly an important one for the theoretical physicist.
Another benefit of metaphysics is that it brings unity to the sciences. All sciences study real things. Biology studies plants and animals. Sociology attempts to study social tendencies. Epistemology studies knowledge. Only metaphysics studies the real, which is common to all sciences. A proper understanding of the real offers a context in which to make accurate scientific inferences.
Finally, the study of metaphysics helps to unify our own person. Most people go through life with a fragmented self. They are unable to connect ideas from different areas of their life. Their work is unrelated to their religion. Science and ethics are in mutually exclusive categories. Politics is something that politicians should concern themselves about, but we should be concerned with putting food on the table. Metaphysics helps us begin to put together the pieces and gives us a framework from which we may order our knowledge.
