Some Consequences of Physics for the Comparative Metaphysics of Quantity

According to comparativist theories of quantities, their intrinsic values are not fundamental. Instead, all the quantity facts are grounded in scale-independent relations like “twice as massive as” or “more massive than.” I show that this sort of scale independence is best understood as a sort of metaphysical symmetry—a principle about which transformations of the non-fundamental ontology leave the fundamental ontology unchanged. Determinism—a core scientific concept easily formulated in absolutist terms—is more difficult for the comparativist to define. After settling on the most plausible comparativist understanding of determinism, I offer some examples of physical systems that the comparativist must count as indeterministic, although the relevant physical theory gives deterministic predictions. Several morals are drawn. In particular: comparativism is metaphysically contingent if true, and it is most natural for a comparativist to accept an at-at theory of motion.

Hasdai Crescas on Divine Omniscience and Human Choice: Comparative Metaphysics

This paper is devoted to the analysis of the parallels between the ideas of the Western scholastics and Jewish philosophers of the XIV–XV centuries. Hasdai Crescas was one of the famous Jewish philosophers. Until the 60s of the XX century researchers considered the philosophy of Judaism in the framework of the Arab-Muslim philosophical tradition. However, with the release of the significant Sh. Pines’ paper this trend has changed. Indeed, it would be much more methodologically more accurate to consider the philosophical ideas of Jewish thinkers of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries also in the light of the interaction of the latter with European scholastic thought. The key issues raised in the main Crescas’ work, The Light of the Lord, are close to the questions formulated and decided by the scholastics. The ideas of Creskas on the divine knowledge of future events, freedom of human will, reward and punishment for actions are parallels with the ideas of different representatives of scholastic philosophy.

Comparative Metaphysics and Theology as a Scientific Endeavor: A Ruist (Confucian) Perspective

Understood as being nothing more than fallible assumptions about the boundary conditions of an inquisitive worldview, this article seeks to argue that metaphysics and theology can, in fact, be pursued as a scientific endeavor. If we broaden our understanding of how perceived realities furnish feedback in order to refine preestablished human discourses, Ruist (Confucian) metaphysics and theology especially can be recognized as being historically pursued as a science by its own right. Eventually, the distinction of Western and Ruist traditions of metaphysics and theology, as well as the imperfections in each of them, speaks to the need of mutual learning for constructing a more robust metaphysical worldview in the twenty-first century.