Compositions of Being: Metaphysical and Non-Metaphysical Ways of Understanding and Discerning Them

Abstract

This article discusses different ways of understanding compositions of being, and different methods for discerning them. It considers non-metaphysical (physical, scientistic, phenomenological, abstractionist) interpretations in order to decide whether metaphysics can use them to discover and gain knowledge of the elements that determine the deepest structure of beings, and which set their mode of being. The paper also shows how much the metaphysical method for discerning the compositions of being is different from non-metaphysical methods.

Keywords

• ontic
• subontic
• composition
• being
• method
• discernment
• metaphysics
• physics
• scientism
• phenomenology
• abstractionism
• interpretation
• structure
• nature
• whole
• part