Science and metaphysics

August 5th, 2008

In an era that we term it as an era of quantum mechanics, certain issues have raised which force us to rethink about them. In physics, we study about characteristics of

- Energy
- Force
- Field of force
- Gravity
- Magnetism
- Spin

But what is energy? What is force? What is field of force? What is gravity? What is magnetism? What is spin?

To all these questions we are silent because nature of things is beyond the mechanism of science. Scientific study starts from observation and nature of things are not visible so nature of things is beyond scope of the science.

Similarly in biology we study about the characteristics of

- Life
- Intelligence

But what is life? And what is intelligence? Is beyond the scope of biology as life and intelligence is beyond the observations.

Every discipline has its own methodology. It is the methodology that defines a discipline and made them workable. Scientific method has not developed overnight or by one person. It has its developmental stages. Once it was totally an area of religions, spiritual movements and magic that was explaining all processes. It was mainly rooted in ancient cultures. All processes were explained by beliefs rooted in these cultures and spiritual movements. Philosophy took birth from debates, discussions, dialogues and lessons of Sophists in ancient Greece. Struggles for convincing others put basics of logic and later on search for truth devised logic in a mechanized form.

1- These mechanized logic help philosophy to explain objects and processes in a rational manner.
2- These logics were in approach of anyone that wants to learn them and apply them.
3- They were also helpful in predicting consequences.

Contrary to magical and spiritual knowledge that were specialized to some persons, logic was a common and convincing method of explaining and understanding the world. In Islamic era, the Muslim scientists added to logic the process of experimentations or practical verifications of logic. These two developments provided the basic foundations for advent of Science. Science is growing as new disciplines are introduced but still logic for explanations and experimentations for verification of experimentations are two basic tools for all scientific disciplines.
Now it is a well devised way which works like machine for generation of scientific knowledge.
Though it is common to all who attended school but it worth mentioning for sake of comparison and it is as follows,

1- Observation
2- Hypothesis
3- Experiment
4- Result (deduction/induction)
5- Laws/Principle

Though it is a successful method that generates reliable knowledge and is contributing to human evolution but it still it fails to answer anything about nature of matter, energy and fields of forces. Human can’t stop themselves from perusing about nature of things hence we need to reconsider metaphysics. Science has set an example for us both by its developmental stages and by its successful mechanism that caused it to diversify, become popular, unify scientific knowledge, set standards for judgments and guidance for both followers and other disciplines. Sure! Metaphysics are running on logic but it needs one another tool like experimentation in science to make it a reliable and a generator of knowledge and understandings.

Argument:

It is a common knowledge and a commonly accepted fact that there is an order in nature. We call this order as discipline. Science and especially quantum mechanics proved and popularized that this order and discipline is quantized or simply calculated. Hence we can say that there is a calculated discipline in nature. If there is calculated discipline in characteristics of nature then there also should be calculated discipline in nature of things or nature. Calculated discipline is common in nature but it is our approach that we have divided it into physics and metaphysics. What are observable comes under consideration of science. Those things that are part of nature but is not visible didn’t come under area of study of science hence it should come under study of another discipline. As metaphysics were already studying these, so why not revitalize it by providing it a methodology of study? It just requires a methodology like science for revitalizing it. There is one problem that works like an obstacle for devising a methodology for it and that is nature of things is not sensible but they could be felt. Feelings are not discrete and measurable like senses (tools of observation).

Result:

As there is calculated discipline in nature, so there shouldn’t be difference between characteristics and nature of things or nature. Science devised a methodology and succeeded in explaining nature and using its forces hence it is also possible to develop a methodology for metaphysics and make it explain the nature of things that is beyond the scope of scientific study.