By Jim J. McCrea
Metaphysics is the science of being as such. It is the study of being in its most abstract and general features. It investigates what is common to all being, and studies the major categories of being (I am not talking about New Age metaphysics here, which is something else).
A correct metaphysics is vital for the Church and society because bad philosophy, held by most people today, is at the root of all their problems. Good philosophy is the corrective to that. Now it may be affirmed that the problem with society is the falling away from Christianity - that so many people do not have the Faith.
However, the Faith cannot take root in a mind that has erroneous ideas about reality. For example, if one holds that God is the universe, it would not make sense that God would come into a sinful world to save it; if one thinks that the only meaningful truth is that which can be detected by the senses and investigated by scientific instruments (with its mathematical methods), that would exclude God or anything else spiritual.
Now the pinnacle of philosophy is *metaphysics,* which we have stated is the science of being as such. This reformation of thought in the public does not necessitate that the general public understand metaphysics, but that only certain key players do. These players, in strategic positions, would influence many other intellectuals and philosophers in particular fields (such as ethics, politics, and education), and be an enlightener and corrective of their thought. These intellectuals and philosophers would in turn, by their talks and publications, influence the general public in the truth of things. When people in general have truth, and they embrace it, goodness and then religion flourishes.
Now back to metaphysics. What is the basic ability of mind that makes metaphysics possible for the metaphysician? It is the *metaphysical intuition of being* (or the intuition of being as such). The metaphysical intuition of being is the ability to see the essence of being itself; to know what it means to be an *IS.* This is not merely the perception of phenomena, which everyone is capable of, but is the ability to perceive being as being with the intellect. This is not a technique or a form of analysis but is a simple and direct seeing by the mind. It is absolutely simple; superhumanly simple. And it is this metaphysical intuition of being that is essential to the metaphysician.
Most philosophers do not have the metaphysical intuition of being. And this is evident when they attempt to understand the nature of being or reality in its deepest aspects. Without the metaphysical intuition of being, in attempting to analyze being, the philosopher goes down a rabbit hole and gets entangled in numerous paradoxes and difficulties without resolution. Many philosophical errors and difficulties have occurred in the history of philosophy because of this. For example, Kant claimed that we cannot know things in themselves but only their impressions on our senses and on our minds. For example, for Kant, when we see a telephone, we are not viewing a being called a telephone but merely a sense impression called a telephone. But the metaphysical intuition of being would have corrected this in Kant if he were able to perceive the "beingness" of the telephone.
The metaphysical intuition of being is the core habit of the metaphysician because the process of metaphysics is simply an action of grasping one intuition after another, linked by logical inferences. What one is intuiting, in the process of doing metaphysics, is being with its properties. For example, the metaphysician, by observing reality, can see that being has transcendental properties of unity, truth, goodness, and beauty. These belong to all beings in their *integrity.* These transcendental properties of being are so much a part of all integral beings that they are literally other names for being.
Now the metaphysician, if he is successful, is able to communicate his intuitions about being to other minds, by a craft and the "magic" of word use - that is, transfer his intuitions to another. In this way, the proper understanding of reality, which comes from a correct metaphysics, when it is made widespread, can foster goodness in society and a mind-set that is open to the Gospel.
** When I say being in its integrity I am talking about good beings. Evil is simply the absence of what is due in something. Evil is a fact, but it is not a being.
