978. I agree with Hartshorne that "the whole . . .

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I agree with Hartshorne that "the whole content of metaphysics must be contained in the theory of deity," because the abstract as such is contained in the concrete (CSPM: 39).

But to be contained in is different from to contain. And it is false to say that metaphysics contains "the theory of deity," if what is to be understood by this phrase—as Hartshorne certainly intends—is the theory of categorial theism. Although metaphysics does and must contain all that such categorial theism necessarily implies, it is properly transcendental rather than categorial, and therefore neither does nor can contain this theism as such.

Summer 1996