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Metaphysics As The Tree Of Philosophy

Decent Essays

In the words of the French philosopher Descartes, “The whole of philosophy is like a tree: the roots are metaphysics, the trunk is physics, and the branches that issue from the trunk are all the other sciences . . ."
But in what soil do the roots of the tree of philosophy have their hold? What are the nourishing elements for the roots and the tree? Or in other words, what is the basis of metaphysics, and what is metaphysics itself?
Metaphysics thinks about beings as beings, and beings as such are in sight. Metaphysical representation owes this sight to the light of Being but this light does not come within the range of metaphysical domain. In other words, metaphysics inquire about the Being, which is the source of this light, but the light …show more content…

But how it manifests itself, it remains obscure. Being in its revelatory essence, i.e., in its truth, is not recalled. Nevertheless, when metaphysics gives answers to its question concerning beings as such, metaphysics speaks out of the unnoticed revealedness of Being. The truth of Being may thus be called the ground in which metaphysics, as the root of the tree of philosophy, is kept and from which it is nourished.
Metaphysics, as the root of the tree of philosophy, sends all nourishment to the trunk and branches. The tree of philosophy grows out of the soil in which metaphysics is rooted. The ground is where the root of the tree lives, but the growth of the tree is never able to absorb this soil in a manner that it makes it disappear in the tree as part of the tree. Instead, the root loses itself in the soil where it forgets itself for the sake of the tree.
Metaphysics, since it represents beings as only beings, does not recall Being itself. Philosophy does not concentrate on its ground. Insofar as a philosopher sets out to experience the ground of metaphysics and attempts to recall the truth of Being itself instead of merely representing beings as beings, his thinking leaves metaphysics. From the point of view of metaphysics, such thinking goes back into the ground of

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