By Schubert Ogden
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As for the third problem, it appears that solving its "in principle" part involves determining \-\- again, on the basis of a proper philosophical analysis \-\- what counts, in principle, as the truth about human existence \-\- namely, the understanding of existence, or self-understanding, necessarily implied by the structure of ultimate reality in its meaning for us. Involved in solving its "in fact" part, then, is determining \-\- also on the basis of philosophical, specifically metaphysical-ethical, analysis \-\- what understanding of existence, or self-understanding, does in fact count as thus necessarily implied by the structure of ultimate reality in its meaning for us. (On this, cf.. further, 'Theology without Metaphysics?" 149 f.: "\[T\]here are two parts \-\- an 'in principle' part, and an 'in fact' part \-\- to determining what is to count as the true and authentic understanding of our existence. Doing the first part requires doing the reflection proper to the philosophy of religion, understood ... as logical analysis of the 'deep structure,' or logical _kind_ of meaning, expressed not only by religious language, but also by the implicit bearing witness that religious language explicitly authorizes. By means of such analysis, it can be determined that it is only by its substantial agreement with the true and authentic understanding of our existence that the credibility of bearing witness can be validated in principle. And it can also be determined that a self-understanding is true and authentic if, and only if, it is appropriate to, and hence authorized by, ultimate reality itself, whose meaning for us, for how we are to understand ourselves and lead our lives, is determined by its structure in itself. But then to do the second part of determining the self-understanding that satisfies this principle in fact requires doing a different kind of philosophical reflection. It is still philosophical because it is still logical analysis. But it is logical analysis, not of the several different kinds of meaning or deep structures, whether separately or together, but of the necessary presuppositions of any kind of meaning, and so, as it were, the deepest structure of all. It is analysis, in other words, of the structure of ultimate reality itself, the threefold ultimate reality of ourselves, others, and the whole, which alone determines, and so authorizes, the true and authentic self-understanding that bearing witness claims to represent. It is doing just such analysis ... that ... \[is\] meant by the generic concept, 'doing metaphysics.' 3 Doing metaphysics is logically analyzing the ultimate reality of our own existence in its structure in itself.") |
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