Is metaphysics meaningful? – Question in QUORA
Any hypothesis which predicts observations can in principle be tested scientifically.
Take “metaphysics” to be the set of hypotheses about people and the universe which does not predict any observations, or none which differ from those predicted by their null hypotheses.
Can a hypothesis be meaningful even if it does not predict any observations?
Answer. (M) The dictionary def. of ‘meaningful’ is, primarily, ‘significant’, ‘purposeful’. The answer to the question ‘Is metaphysics meaningful?’ is, ‘yes’ (otherwise there would not be such a thing or notion). But metaphysics is not empirical science, so it does not work with hypotheses or with experimentation (measurement, etc.). Once called ‘the queen of the sciences’, it is at the root of all thinking, scientific as well as philosophical, in particular the basic or fundamental ideas about what real/reality is. Thus, the métier of metaphysics is philosophical, including the presuppositions underlying empirical science: beingness or existence, space, time, and causality, and also matter/energy, subjectivity and objectivity. Traditionally metaphysics is considered as a branch of philosophy.
