Ontological grounds for criticism of metaphysics and the return of metaphysics

Olga E. Stol­yaro­va
Insti­tute of Phi­los­o­phy, Russ­ian Acad­e­my of Sci­ences

Onto­log­i­cal grounds for crit­i­cism of meta­physics and the return of meta­physics

Abstract. We affirm that today meta­physics returns to phi­los­o­phy. This means there was a time with­out meta­physics, or at least its over­com­ing was con­sid­ered a respectable posi­tion, a philo­soph­i­cal main­stream, oth­er­wise it would be point­less to talk about its return. The denial of meta­physics does not mean, how­ev­er, the absence of an ontol­ogy, but only the absence (at least in an explic­it form) or the ille­git­i­ma­cy of a pos­i­tive ontol­ogy, which makes judg­ments about over-sen­si­ble real­i­ty. The pos­i­tive ontol­ogy is replaced by a neg­a­tive (apophat­ic) ontol­ogy, which puts lim­its of thought, prov­ing the impos­si­bil­i­ty of spec­u­la­tive think­ing, and pro­vides crit­i­cism of meta­physics. The crit­i­cism of meta­physics is an act and a fact of col­lec­tive thought, and, as in the case of a reflec­tion of a lone­ly skep­tic, it reveals the onto­log­i­cal con­di­tions for its own pos­si­bil­i­ty. The dis­cov­ery of these con­di­tions is a tru­ly philo­soph­i­cal task, since phi­los­o­phy from the begin­ning claims itself that it moves from facts to the con­di­tions of their pos­si­bil­i­ty. Doubt­ing the crit­i­cism of meta­physics for phi­los­o­phy is tan­ta­mount to doubt­ing the act (and fact) of its own think­ing, which delin­eates the realm of the exist­ing. Crit­i­cism of meta­physics that is con­sid­ered as a philo­soph­i­cal fact brings skep­ti­cism to the onto­log­i­cal lev­el. It allows us to talk about the return of meta­physics, which means the dis­cov­ery of the onto­log­i­cal con­di­tions of philo­soph­i­cal doubt as a fact. Dialec­tics of two philo­soph­i­cal tra­di­tions, pos­i­tive ontol­ogy and neg­a­tive ontol­ogy, pro­vides a way to deter­mine the phe­nom­e­non of the return of meta­physics as a legit­i­mate response to crit­i­cism of meta­physics.

Key­words: meta­physics, crit­i­cism of meta­physics, real­ism, skep­ti­cism, ontol­ogy, his­to­ry of phi­los­o­phy.

DOI: 10.5840/dspl20181221

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