Metatheology (n.)
The body of half-baked hunches, preconceptions
and vigourously defended—and yet ultimately misguided—intuitions
that comprises much of what passes for theoretical metaphysics these
days.
Amongst the central tenets of metatheology is the
doctrine of ‘sortalism’, which states that objects must exist in the
way that they appear to us because we say that they do. This is a contemporary
generalisation of Descartes' position, which states that objects must exist in
this way because God says that they do, and is in contrast to Kant, who says
that although
something
must exist, we just don't have the foggiest clue what that something might be,
and who is this God person anyway? (Nietzsche, incidentally, never actually
maintained that God was in fact dead, merely that he was having an extremely
long lunch break, and would be back after finishing the cheese course and a cup
of particularly strong black
coffee.)
The popularity of metatheology comes from the innate desire to prove that one was right all along, and allows philosophers to think that they are doing something terribly clever when in fact they are just repeating commonly held prejudices and conjecture using fancy terms that nobody else can understand. This resulting body of theory and opinion is what more sophisticated philosophers like to refer to as ‘a pile of old pants’.
The popularity of metatheology comes from the innate desire to prove that one was right all along, and allows philosophers to think that they are doing something terribly clever when in fact they are just repeating commonly held prejudices and conjecture using fancy terms that nobody else can understand. This resulting body of theory and opinion is what more sophisticated philosophers like to refer to as ‘a pile of old pants’.
Posted on Tuesday - May 17, 2005 at 09:33 AM
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Published On: Sep 07, 2007 08:02 AM
