Any
philosophical perspective on reality has to account for both the apparent unity
and coherence of the world while acknowledging the variegated richness of our
experience of the world. Traditionally
philosophers have done this in two ways, either through an appeal to a single
basic reality that provides the unity to which all diversity must be related,
or by proposing two basic realities whose distinctness explains diversity and
combination explains unity.
We
have already had reason to consider some of the views of the great French
philosopher Rene Descartes, and once again he can provide us with an
instructive illustration of the issue.
His dualism has provided the starting point for a number of problems
that have occupied many philosophers since.
Descartes held that the world divides into two separate substances: mind
and matter. This left the material world
free to the investigation of the mathematical sciences, which tended towards a
deterministic result, and it left the mind free for the church’s teachings on
matters moral and spiritual. It also set
up the classical problem of epistemology: how does the non-physical thinking
mind know the non-thinking physical world? And in addition the classical
problem of the philosophy of mind: how does the mind relate to the brain?
Those
who have come after Descartes, despite offering strong criticisms of his views,
have largely accepted his model. Sometimes rejecting mind and embracing
materialism, sometimes rejecting matter and embracing idealism. This,
admittedly simplified, background is useful for seeing the distinctive nature
of a reformational approach to philosophy which can be summed up like this:
rather than search for the unity and coherence of reality within reality
itself, reformational philosophy starts with the assumption that the cosmos
has a coherent order by virtue of God’s act of creation. A lot more will need to be said about this
assumption later. However, for now,
let’s have a look at the different result it gives us.
Reformational
philosophy gives us an account of the coherence and diversity of reality
through its theory of 15 or so basic modes of reality, these are the modal laws
referred to by Seerveld in the quote above.
From the diagram we can see that such an approach allows for an
understanding of the world that is considerably richer than any which continues
to work from within the model left by Descartes. By releasing us from the necessity of finding
the ultimate meaning and origin of reality within reality itself, reformational
philosophy sets us on a path with quite a different focus. Reformational philosophy seeks to investigate
and give a provisional account of the diverse ways that things function and
people act in the world.
The
rich diversity of reality can be viewed from two distinct perspectives. First we will look at this diversity from the
perspective of the different ways in which people and things function. This is the horizontal direction in the
diagram above and concerns what we call modal theory. Secondly we can look at this diversity from
the perspective of the things and institutions that function in these diverse
ways, the vertical direction which we will call a theory of entities.
These two elements cover the broad range of what exists, we can talk of things,
artefacts, institutions, people, acts and events. Rather than listing these in
future we will follow Chaplin and speak of existents to cover this range.
Once
these are in place it will be possible to deal with the more complex issues of
human society and how to think philosophically about our own existing and
acting in the world.
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