A Metaphysics for the Future: (Avebury Series in Philosophy)

This work is intended to serve not only as an expression of a new idea of a philosophy, but as an "apologia" for philosophy as a legitimate and independent discipline in its own right. It argues that in the 20th century, truth has not been abandoned, but merely modified. The text proposes a return to truth and suggests that it is only after apprehending the truths of consciousness that the philosopher's mirror may become a kaleidoscope through which reality may be contemplated. First order truth lies in the realm of discovery, and discovery takes place only within the moment of subjective re-enactment.

Table of Contents:
Preface: a legitimisation of philosophy. Prologue: on finding a suitable label. Introduction: freeing Wittgenstein's prisoner; the cult of linguisticism. Part 1 The nature of metaphysics: what is metaphysics? a typology of metaphysics - theistic and doctrinal non-0theistic metaphysics, doctrinal religious metaphysics, non-doctrinal religious metaphysics and non-theistic religious metaphysics, rationalist metaphysics, the metaphysics of appearance and reality, the metaphysics of transcendental conditions, the metaphysics of experience, revisionary and descriptive metaphysics, the metaphysics of absolute presuppositions, Hegelian-dialectical metaphysics or developmental metaphysics, the metaphysics of Hartshorne, regional metaphysics; pedagogical approaches to the study of metaphysics -the history of systems, the approach by topics, the approach by problematic, the approach by perspectives, cyclical and dialectical progression, hermeneutics, modified Hegelianism, Chinese modified Hegelianism; metaphysical principles and metaphysical insight. Part 2 The nature of knowledge: the modes of knowledge, the case of the "idiot savant" and "how many angels can dance on the head of a pin?" - prelinguistic knowledge, the case of the "idiot savant", philosophical debates, post-conceptual knowledge, the doctrine of transcendental reflection, space and time; Descartes' legacy and exorcising the ghosts of the Cartesian and the hermeneutic circles - preface to the Cartesian legacy, summary of the Cartesian legacy, exorcising the ghost of the Cartesian circle, exorcising the ghost of the hermeneutic circle; Husserl's red herrings -Husserl's red herring 1 - the intentionally of consciousness, red herring 2 - the reality of other minds, red herring 3 - the transcendental ego, red herring 4 - the proof of th external world; the bogeyword, "intuition"; the laws of the mind and the laws of the universe; the distinction between empirical psychology and phenomenological epistemology - defining the realm of pure phenomenology; the logic in phenomenology - phenomenological truth; the forgotten fourth.