Definition of Metaphysics
Looking for unconditional certainties, metaphysics transcends the conditions of the fundamentally uncertain orientation. However, it does not simply oppose orientation, but is rather a possibility of orientation, since it can be necessary and helpful in specific situations. Keeping a critical distance from final answers, orientation can make use of metaphysics for a certain period of time (chap. 17.1). The history of metaphysics is a history of the critique of metaphysics. It teaches us that metaphysics originates in the needs of orientation: the metaphysical term of being responds to the orientation problem of time, the term of world to the problem of unsurveyability, the term of soul to the problem of controllability, and the concept of God to the problem of uncertainty as such (chap 17.2).
Note:
The chapters and the page numbers refer to the book by Werner Stegmaier, What is Orientation? A Philosophical Investigation, translated by Reinhard G. Mueller (Berlin/Boston: De Gruyter, 2019).
XV, 41, 54-55, 72, 77-82, 95-96, 107-108, 176-177, 265-273, 275, 283-284
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