A Commonsense Critique of A Priori Metaphysics

"The meme suggests that metaphysics is the real hero behind our increasing understanding of reality, while science merely plays second fiddle, operating within metaphysical frameworks supplied by philosophers. Frameworks without which science itself would supposedly have been impossible. The image portrays philosophers as underappreciated truth-seekers, while scientists are instead largely parasitic on their work. This view is grotesquely and demonstrably false. Worse, it inadvertently provides ammunition to those who argue that philosophers have nothing important left to say in our modern scientific age."

"In an attempt to make philosophy seem more relevant again, claims of this sort about the relationship between science and philosophy instead betray a form of intellectual inquiry that has lost touch with reality itself. The image reflects a return to an older way of doing philosophy: a pre-Enlightenment mode of thought, a revival of mysticist scholasticism that bears little resemblance to the pursuit of truth."

Philip Goff shared a meme claiming metaphysics supplies conceptual frameworks that make scientific discovery possible, portraying philosophers as primary truth-seekers and scientists as largely parasitic. That claim is grotesquely and demonstrably false. The claim unintentionally strengthens critics who argue that philosophers have nothing important left to offer modern science. Such claims represent a revival of pre-Enlightenment mystic scholasticism and a mode of intellectual inquiry disconnected from empirical reality. Don Ross characterizes the notion that an a priori metaphysics must precede science as a "counter-Enlightenment project." Metaphysics as practiced by Goff and some colleagues departs from rigorous engagement with scientific methods.

Read at Psychology Today