Principles of Philosophical Traditionalism

Part One: TRANSCENDENCE. The Metaphysical, Anthropological & Epistemic Principles of Traditionalism

1.      Transcendence: from the Latin transcendentem; prefix trans- meaning ‘beyond’ and scandare, ‘to climb.’

a.      Metaphysical Transcendence. Reality cannot be reduced solely to what can be weighed, measured, or empirically known (i.e. scientific materialism). Rather, the realm of being transcends beyond the physical. Hence the term metaphysics from the Greek μεταφυσικά (metaphusika), from μετὰ τὰ φυσικά meaning “that which is beyond physics.” Also, traditional metaphysics does not preclude the existence of being-beyond-being—epekeina tês ousias (i.e. deism).

b.      Anthropological Transcendence. Authentic human being likewise cannot be reduced to materialism or even the working of human psychology (i.e. psychologism). Rather, human beings are physical and noetic (from the Greek νοῦς—nous meaning ‘mind’ or ‘perception’) animals, having both a temporal and spiritual aspect of our nature.

            i.     Anthropological Integralism. Ideally, the various aspects of human being are organized in an integral whole—a hylomorphic unity; from the Greek words ὕλη (hyle) ‘matter,’ and μορφή (morphe), ‘form.’ If the higher and lower aspects of human being are in tension or reversed, this creates inner conflict or a pathology (πάθος—pathos) with physical, emotional, psychological, social, and spiritual ramifications.

           ii.     Existential Teleology Rooted in Transcendent Metaphysics. As super-mundane realities, the higher aspects of being aid in organizing the lower aspects, giving human action—both individual and corporate—into a hierarchy of values and a transcendent aim (τέλος—telos). 

1.      Epektasis. Each aspect of human nature is fulfilled in and by the higher: the body is for its own sake, but to actualize the soul, and the soul is oriented toward the spirit. Healthy human being is therefore a well-ordered hierarchy of subordinate aims wherein human physicality, psychology, and spirituality all strive for transcendent fullness—the state of ἐπέκτασις (epektasis) meaning ‘starving toward.’ 

2.      Eudemonia. Well-ordered life, which is certainly not easy nor comfortable, is however satisficing and is existentially experienced as meaning, purpose, or well-being—εὐδαιμονία (eudemonia)—the psycho-spiritual state of authentic human actualization not to be confused with the oft-fleeting emotional state of happiness or the mere absence of suffering.  

c.      Integral Knowledge. Because of the integral nature of reality and the human person, the epistme (ἐπιστήμη)—or field of certain knowledge—is not limited to knowledge based on sensation; rather, we can perceive and reason empirically (via sensation) and noetically.

            i.     Expansive Epistemology. This expansive epistemology avoids the myopia of bot rational positivism (all that can be known is that which is empirically and logically demonstrable) on the one hand and idealism (all that can be known are the ideas that subsist in the human intellect)—either epistemological or metaphysical—on the other.

           ii.     Supora-Rationality of Being. Likewise, this integralism does not posit a strict identity between reality and mental construct. Because reality cannot be limited to the possibility horizons of the human intellect (subjectivism), being is preserved as supra-rational; that is, rationally intelligible, but never exhausted by rational inquiry. Humans can therefore engage in:

1.      Scientia. Science, (from the Latin scientia—organized knowledge derived from sense experience) I the branch of knowledge that deals with what can be known empirically.

2.      Theoria. As a composite being, man can also know or gain into reality beyond physics. This takes the form of rationally structured investigation of supra-spatial-temporal being (i.e. philosophy) or via direct intuition—noetic insight (θεωρία—theoria). Also, because the possibility of being-beyond-being exists, likewise does the possibility of revelation and theology.

          iii.     Diversity & Hierarchy of Knowledge. In this expansive epistemology founded upon a transcendent metaphysics, a diversity of the branches of knowledge can be validated. For each branch is rooted in the possibilities and rational methodologies implicit in and provisioned by their subject matter. Different aspects of reality provision different rational approaches.

This legitimate diversification and specialization need not lead to the fragmentation of human knowledge into isolated, mutually autonomous, and irreconcilable or contradictory domains if organized within a hierarchy of knowledge.

1.      Philosophical Primacy. In such a hierarchal schema, metaphysics (or philosophy more generally) is higher than physics (or empirical sciences more generally), followed by the practical sciences or arts (technology and medicine).

Apart from such integration of valid diversity, philosophy could unduly hamper scientific or technological advancement. Likewise, technological possibilities could be limited by the prevailing scientific paradigm. The reverse is also true:

2.      Integral Science. Science, because of its limited scope and methodology of questioning its fundamental premises, is unsuitable for deriving ultimate ends (teloi) and thus a primacy in the hierarchy of knowledge. As the axiom goes: You cannot derive a ‘why’ from a ‘what’ nor an ‘ought’ from an ‘is.’ Thus, when empirical science is deemed the highest form of knowledge (i.e. scientism), it leads to nihilism.

Also, because reality cannot be limited purely to matter and energy or the bare interactions thereof (i.e. atomism), our mental constructs of reality must likewise be integrated with organic rather than mechanistic models of reality. Therefore most fruitful methodology of empirical sciences is one that approaches a given subject as an integral whole made of interdependent parts and itself within networks of interrelation.

3.      Technological Posteriority. Integral science is theoretically a priori to technology (τεχνολογία—technologia, from τέχνη—techne meaning ‘craft’ or ‘skill’) be it material-economic or social-political.

This technological posteriority insures that empirical knowledge remains objective. For, if human utilitarian knowhow (in the manipulation, construction, and utilization of reality for a given end) proceeds science, it can lead to a mechanistic understanding of being which does not recognize that the constitution of a thing is not arbitrary, but rooted in the constraints and affordances of the system of interdependence in which it is nested. This both subjectifies and distorts an accurate view of reality and leads to disastrous consequences for human action (techne).

Likewise, technology and medicine when unconstrained by ethics or a transcendent aim under which to be directed become subject to states and markets with disastrous consequences.