Metaphysics explains why this concrete world exists, as history explains particulars to sociology.
Evidence
In this sense ontology appears to us capable of being defined as the specification of the structures of being of the existent taken as a totality, and we shall define metaphysics rather as raising the question of the existence of the existent. This is why in view of the absolute contingency of the existent, we are convinced that any metaphysics must conclude with a “that is”—i.e., in a direct intuition of that contingency. — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 799 (
#expands, via linked claim)
- To avoid a misunderstanding: I do not believe that the Frage nach dem Sein and similar questions are or ought to be an existential concern. What was meaningful at the origins of philosophic thought may well have become meaningless at its end, and the loss of meaning may not be due to the incapacity to think. The history of mankind has given definite answers to the “question of Being,” and has given them in very concrete terms, which have proved their efficacy. The technological universe is one of them. — Herbert Marcuse, One-Dimensional Man, 540 (
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Categorization
- XREF: connects to: Metaphysics studies individual world-genesis where ontology studies universal structures — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness: An Essay on…, 1434; Human history answers the question of Being in concrete practical terms — Herbert Marcuse, One-Dimensional Man: Studies in the…, 540; Metaphysics is any assertion of extra-historical abstract universal truth. — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 1553 (+3 more)
Broader Connections
- Ontology is descriptive while metaphysics is hypothetical and concerns origins
#expands(0.80) - Ontology specifies structures of being while metaphysics questions the existence of the existent
#expands(0.80) — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 799 - Human history answers the question of Being in concrete practical terms
#expands(0.78) — Herbert Marcuse, One-Dimensional Man, 540 - Metaphysics is any assertion of extra-historical abstract universal truth.
#expands(0.75) — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 1553 - Theory of history is possible despite the uniqueness of historical facts
#corroborates(0.75) — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 1526